YouTube celebrity MrBeast — real name Jimmy Donaldson — is in talks to join a number of bids for TikTok’s U.S. operations. But he hasn’t chosen one exclusively yet.
First, on Monday, the CEO of Employer.com, Jesse Tinsley, said MrBeast is part of an all-cash bid for TikTok that he’s leading. This was also repeated in a press release put out by the law firm representing Tinsley’s group.
But MrBeast’s spokesperson Matthew Hiltzik told the AP on Wednesday that even though Donaldson is in “ongoing discussions” with multiple bidders, he has no “exclusive” agreements with any of them. Employer.com declined to comment.
Updated January 23, 2025: Post-publication, an Employer.com spokesperson told TechCrunch that “clearly MrBeast is in high demand, for great reasons. Jesse and his team would love to see MrBeast be a part of whichever bid ultimately wins, and greatly values the shared support that MrBeast has shown across the board.”
That same day, real estate billionaire Frank McCourt, who is leading a different group’s $20 billion bid for TikTok, told Axios that MrBeast is going to be a part of his bid.
However, MrBeast is only in talks with McCourt’s group and the parties have not entered into an official agreement, a spokesperson told Axios and also confirmed to TechCrunch.
At this stage, it appears that MrBeast is keeping his options open.
While MrBeast is certainly wealthy, with $85 million in earnings in the first 10 months of 2024 according to Forbes, it is his celebrity and operational experience as a creator that has attracted multiple bidders.
That could even mean running TikTok U.S. if a purchase goes through. “MrBeast the *future* CEO of TikTok,” posted Employer.com’s CEO Jesse Tinsley on Wednesday.
There are multiple other bids floating around that MrBeast could well be in talks with. Perplexity and Oracle have been brought up as potential buyers.
MrBeast himself hasn’t publicly commented on which side he’ll choose yet. “The leading groups who are all credible [sic] bidding on Tik Tok have reached out for us to help them, I’m excited to partner/make this a reality,” he posted on Wednesday.
“Big things cooking,” he wrote.
