"This is going to be a collaboration" - Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary shares update on TikTok negotiations

Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary shared a segment of his interview with Fox Business. He provided an update on the growing nature of the TikTok deal currently happening between the US and China.

However, he claimed that a shift has now happened in the entire ordeal. This was because of another deal that went down recently in the UAE.

According to the Shark Tank investor, this has brought about a change in the course of the negotiations and it was not expected. Things took a positive turn when Apple and Alibaba, an American organization and a Chinese one, collaborated and brokered a deal together.

He says that this is the first time these two countries have ever come together to agree upon something and this could pave a positive way for the ongoing TikTok negotiations.

Explaining the whole situation, Shark Tank investor Kevin stated,

"But the tone of this deal has completely changed in the last 48 hours. Here's why; That announcement, in the United Arab Emirates between Apple and Alibaba changed the whole game. And the reason is, that is a level of cooperation between the two behemoth countries, China and the United States that we have never seen. Now, is Trump behind this? Who knows? Did he talk to Xi about it?"

Adding, he said,

"Because they are letting them put Chinese AI on an American product in China. That tells me, that telegraphs to me, and certainly, Frank and I have talked about this that maybe, this is going to be a collaboration between the two countries. That TikTok is going to become another deal like that."

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Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary discussed the changing nature of the TikTok deal

Kevin O'Leary, the Shark Tank investor, is hopeful that the deal that has happened between Apple and Alibaba could mean something for TikTok as well. He is speculating if President Donald Trump is also involved in the UAE collaboration and whether he has spoken to President Xi Jinping about the whole matter.

Kevin thinks that this is a groundbreaking moment for US-Chinese relations. He and Frank McCourt have an offer of $20 billion to buy TikTok's algorithm in the US market. Another aspect that Kevin points out is how this happened in the UAE and not in any other country.

Given that they have been having a huge hand in growing global AI investments, the Shark Tank investor thinks that TikTok could follow a similar path. He wishes for the two economic superpowers to find a way to cooperate rather than compete over the app. He said,

"So, I'm thinking to myself, okay, maybe TikTok is a Xi kind of Trump, 'Let's work together, let's take out the issues we've got around leaking the data and show the world that we can co-operate on something like this. Let's make it right and we'll work together." And that would be a feather in both Xi and Trump's hat."

The host then asked Shark Tank's Kevin if he had heard back from ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, itself. To this, he replied with uncertainty and said that they had already made the initial steps and were in the talking stages with the organization. However, the fate will ultimately be decided by President Donald Trump. He said,

"We've already papered them, we've already talked to them. This is more about Trump right now. What does he wanna do? It's his deal. We're all waiting. We're definitely in the running here. I mean, we have a solution to solve for this data issue and we have spent a lot of money on it already. I probably spend 40% of my day on this deal."

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Shark Tank season 16 episodes are released weekly on ABC at 8 PM Eastern Time on Fridays. They are later available to watch on Hulu.