Amazon has made an unexpected bid to acquire TikTok just days before the Saturday, April 5 deadline to secure a non-Chinese buyer or face a nationwide ban.

Neither Amazon nor its founder, Jeff Bezos, have commented on the matter.

President Donald Trump met with Vance, Lutnick, and other administration officials on Wednesday, April 2 to assess potential offers. The White House has tasked Vance and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz with overseeing negotiations on TikTok’s future.

“If and when there is an announcement on TikTok, it will come from President Trump,” a White House official stated to NBC News.

The platform’s fate has been uncertain since last year, when then-President Joe Biden signed bipartisan legislation requiring ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, to divest from its U.S. operations or risk a ban. With no deal finalized, Trump extended the deadline on his first day in office, allowing TikTok more time to find a buyer.

ByteDance has not publicly confirmed negotiations with any potential buyers, nor has it indicated a willingness to sell. Trump has suggested he may extend the deadline again, and Vance has advocated against further delays.

Efforts to restrict TikTok’s presence in the U.S. stretch back to Trump’s first term when a previous attempt to ban the app was unsuccessful. However, during his 2024 campaign, Trump appeared to soften his stance, posting a video on the platform pledging to ‘save TikTok.’ The Supreme Court later upheld the ban in the final days of the Biden administration, temporarily shutting down the app in the U.S. before Trump reversed the decision after taking office.

Speaking to reporters earlier this week, Trump signalled confidence in resolving.

“We have a lot of potential buyers,” he said. “There’s tremendous interest in TikTok. The decision is going to be my decision. TikTok is, it’s very interesting, and a lot of people want to buy it.”

Potential buyers include Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who has joined a bid led by billionaire investor Frank McCourt, as well as AI search engine startup Perplexity AI and former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.