President Donald Trump said that a group of buyers has been found for TikTok, which faces a ban in the US due to its ties to China, adding that he could name the buyers in two weeks, AFP reported.

“By the way, we have a buyer for TikTok,” Trump said in an interview with Fox's “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartirom.

“Very wealthy people. It's a group of wealthy people,” the president added, without revealing more than that he would announce their names “in about two weeks.”

The president also said that “approval from China” would likely be needed for the sale and “I think President Xi (Jinping) will probably do that.”

TikTok is owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance.

A federal law requiring the sale or ban of TikTok on national security grounds was due to take effect the day before Trump took office on January 20. But the Republican, whose 2024 election campaign relied heavily on social media and who has declared himself a fan of TikTok, delayed the ban.

In mid-June, Trump extended the deadline for the popular video-sharing app by another 90 days to find a buyer that is not from China or be banned in the US.

Tech experts quickly described the buzz around TikTok as a symbol of the tense tech rivalry between the US and China.

Although Trump had long supported a ban or sale, he changed his position and promised to protect the platform, which has nearly two billion users worldwide, after becoming convinced that it had helped him win the support of young voters in the November election.

“I have a little bit of a soft spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump told NBC News in early May. “If an extension is necessary, I would be willing to extend it.”

Now, after two extensions pushed the deadline back to June 19, Trump has extended it for a third time.

In May, he said a group of buyers was ready to pay ByteDance “a lot of money” for TikTok's US operations.

The previous month, he emphasized that China would have agreed to a deal to sell TikTok if it weren't for the dispute over tariffs imposed by Trump on Beijing.

ByteDance confirmed the negotiations with the US government, noting that key issues need to be resolved and that any deal would be “subject to approval under Chinese law.” |BGNES