Jimmy Donaldson, widely recognized as the YouTuber MrBeast, is part of a notable consortium attempting to acquire TikTok, reportedly with a bid exceeding $20 billion. According to Bloomberg, Donaldson has joined forces with Jesse Tinsley of Employer.com, Roblox co-founder and CEO David Baszucki, and Nathan McCauley, head of the crypto platform Anchorage Digital, in this ambitious endeavor. The group estimates that securing TikTok would require an investment of $25 billion.

Despite their efforts, TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, has firmly stated that its U.S. operations are not on the market. The group led by Tinsley has yet to receive a direct response from ByteDance regarding their proposal.

Donaldson's representatives have indicated that he is engaging with multiple parties and is poised to align with the most promising bidder. In a tweet dated January 22, Donaldson expressed his enthusiasm: "The leading groups who are all credible bidding on Tik Tok have reached out for us to help them, I’m excited to partner/make this a reality. Big things cooking."

Earlier this week, former U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned that Microsoft was negotiating to purchase TikTok, expressing his desire for a competitive bidding process. Microsoft has not yet confirmed these discussions.

TikTok faced a significant disruption when it was taken offline for its 170 million U.S. users just before a law that mandated ByteDance to sell TikTok on national security grounds or face a ban came into effect on January 19. The app went dark after the Supreme Court rejected an appeal following TikTok's First Amendment challenge.

In their ruling, the nine justices recognized the commonality of data collection in the digital era but noted, "TikTok’s scale and susceptibility to foreign adversary control, together with the vast swaths of sensitive data the platform collects, justify differential treatment to address the Government’s national security concerns."

TikTok was able to resume operations following assurances from Trump that the company would not face penalties for restoring service. TikTok responded, "It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States."

Upon taking office on January 20, Trump issued an executive order to delay the enforcement of the law by 75 days. He is currently in discussions with various entities and individuals about a potential acquisition of TikTok and has expressed openness to the idea of X/Twitter owner Elon Musk taking the helm.