The American economic media outlet CNBC has reported that, amidst discussions regarding the sale of the Chinese video platform TikTok in the United States, AI startup “Perplexity AI” (hereinafter referred to as Perplexity) has proposed a plan to merge with TikTok and transfer half of the stakes to the U.S. government.
Perplexity has presented ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, with a revised proposal to create a new entity by merging with TikTok’s U.S. branch. According to CNBC, the revised plan includes allowing the U.S. government to own up to 50% of the shares in the new entity when it goes public.
Sources from CNBC say that the structure of this new merged entity would allow ByteDance’s existing investors to retain most of their shares, while enabling Perplexity to acquire more video content.
Perplexity is an AI search engine startup that competes with OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, and Google. Amid the generative AI boom, the company was valued at approximately $9 billion (about 12.9 trillion KRW) late last year.
Previously, U.S. President Donald Trump stated at a press conference on the 21st that if someone buys TikTok and gives half of the shares to the U.S., they would grant a license (business rights in the U.S.).
President Trump mentioned on the 25th that discussions with various parties regarding the TikTok sale are ongoing and a decision would be made within 30 days.
Perplexity is among various companies and individuals mentioned as potential acquirers or partners for TikTok. Microsoft, Oracle, and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, have been mentioned as potential acquirers of TikTok.
TikTok temporarily halted its services in the U.S. for several hours on August 18-19 due to the so-called “TikTok ban law,” which would ban TikTok services in the U.S. unless ByteDance sold TikTok’s U.S. operations to an American company. However, President Trump signed an executive order on August 20th, postponing the enforcement of the TikTok ban for 75 days, allowing services to resume.
[Photo Source: Yonhap News / Screenshot from Perplexity Homepage]
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