"Been a big move" - Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary updates on US-China efforts to save TikTok

Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary recently shared a segment of his interview with Fox Business about an update on saving TikTok in America. He gave insights into the negotiations between the United States and China about the future of the application and how it shall operate from now on.

The parent company, ByteDance, has been under scrutiny by the government for security concerns.

Kevin noted that there is now an involvement from key government figures such as JD Vance and Representative Michael Waltz in the entire deal. They are trying to evaluate various bids in an attempt to find the most viable one to have a continued presence of TikTok in America.

However, Kevin says that some of these bidders are only "posers" and lack the financial capability to close the deal.

Describing the same, Kevin says,

"Yeah, there's been a big move. The mandate has shifted over to JD Vance. His staff is taking care of it. We know Waltz is involved now. They are filtering through the bids to try to figure out which one's are the real ones."

He continued,

"A lot of people announced their interest in this deal, they are posers and they are gonna figure out who's got the ability to close and who doesn't. Try to figure out Yi Ming, the largest shareholder in ByteDance. Very important, the creator the founder."

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Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary talks about the potential for US-China Tech Cooperation

According to Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary, the most "interesting" aspect of the negotiations is that it gives a chance to US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping to work together and form a huge technological agreement.

The biggest roadblock that the government is facing is having Yi Ming on board, according to the Shark Tank investor. He is the founder and thus has the largest share of ByteDance.

Shark Tank's Kevin said that securing a favor from him is important if they want any deal to move forward and take shape. And in the midst of it all, the transition should be able to preserve TikTok's algorithm, which is the essence of the entire platform.

Describing it, he says,

"It looks like the direction of this deal, it's gonna be a Trump deal with Xi. But you need this Yi Ming guy to get on board and then find a way to do a transition. You gotta keep the algorithm working because that's what makes TikTok, TikTok. But you know what's emerging that no one has talked about yet?"

He added,

"This is really interesting. This is a chance for Trump and Xi, to say 'We're gonna cooperate on a deal finally. We're not gonna go to war on each other. Let's try for the first time to do a cooperation on tech. You gotta abide by our laws in the United States, but let's make a deal.'"

Along with this, the deal could also prove beneficial to China as they wanted to be a part of the G7 countries. This means that they could show their willingness by abiding by the rules that are set by these nations. This TikTok agreement that aligns with US laws could be the first step towards the same.

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Shark Tank Season 16 releases new episodes weekly on ABC at 8 PM Eastern Time on Fridays. Later, they can be streamed online through HULU.