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US Venture Capital Giant Andreessen Horowitz is in discussions to invest in social media platform Tiktok as part of an effort led by Donald Trump to steal management of popular video apps from Chinese owners.
Venture Capital Group, whose co-founder Marc Andreessen is vocal supporter of the US President, is in discussions to add new external investments to buy Tiktok Chinese investors as part of a bid led by Oracle and other American investors.
Two people directly involved in BID said there was no consensus on Tiktok’s price tag yet, but added that the US division is likely to be evaluated based on its sales. They said revenues were $36 billion worldwide in 2024, with the US accounting for about a third of that, excluding China.
The bid recently emerged ahead of the April 5 deadline, ahead of the deadline for banning domestic apps unless the Beijing-based owner sells its US division to non-Chinese companies.
Andreessen invested early in Facebook and spent $400 million on Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition in 2022, but is not an investor in the ordinance. The company was approached when Tiktok’s advisors and the White House tried to add financial firepower to the ongoing debate. Andreessen was strongly considering investing, and the three said they were familiar with the discussion.
People said Blackstone Group and other large asset managers who have not yet invested in Buitedan are also approached as part of a later consultation to split Tiktok from parents before the deadline.
While Blackstone was discussing investments well below $1 billion, Andreesen was interested in taking a larger stake, sources said. Reuters previously reported on Blackstone’s interest.
Andreessen Horowitz did not respond to requests for comment. Blackstone declined to comment. Tiktok did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Andreessen’s talks aim to assure Trump that the video app has no control over China and can continue operating domestically, in order to take over the company along with software giant Oracle as part of a wide range of negotiations by Tiktok’s biggest US investors.
The Financial Times previously reported that existing backers, including Atlantic General, Susquehanna, KKR and Court, are seeking to acquire additional stakes in the spin-off Tiktok US business.
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Co-founded by Trump’s ally Larry Ellison, Oracle potentially employs Tiktoc’s small shareholdings and secure US data, allowing Bytedan to continue with the highly sought-after algorithm.
Mark Andreesen’s close relationship with the Trump administration includes supporting recruiting staff for the US government’s cost-cutting unit of billionaires masks, and former Andreesen Horowitz general partner Sriram Krishnan is an artificial intelligence White House advisor.
The company is also a large investor in other companies run by Musk, including the AI company Xai, which acquired X on Friday.
Additional Reports by Zijing Wu in Hong Kong
