So, it looks like we’re in 2025, but with a familiar twist: Microsoft might just be swooping in to grab TikTok once more.
To give you a bit of history, last year, the U.S. Congress passed a bill demanding that China-based TikTok either sell off its U.S. operations or shut down completely. Former President Joe Biden didn’t stop it, so it became law. TikTok initially refused to sell, which led to it going offline briefly last Sunday. However, it was back in action a few hours later, with a message thanking the new President Trump for offering a temporary reprieve.
President Trump has given TikTok a 90-day grace period, even though Google Play and the Apple App Store still haven’t reinstated the app due to the law. So, TikTok still faces a looming deadline to either find a buyer or exit the U.S. market entirely in the coming months.
In this high-stakes scenario, according to NPR (via The Verge), Microsoft is once again eyeing TikTok as a potential acquisition target.
The globally popular short-form video app has been under fire for its addictive algorithm, notorious for creating echo chambers and facilitating all kinds of radicalization. The U.S. government has flagged TikTok as a national security threat because of its parent company, ByteDance, and its connections to the Chinese Communist Party. Officials fear TikTok could be used for spreading propaganda or monitoring American users. Over in Europe, there’s also scrutiny over TikTok’s possible influence in the rise of extremist political parties and pro-Putin content.
Rumors circulate that the White House is exploring a scenario in which Oracle would take over TikTok’s global operations, with ByteDance retaining a minority stake. Microsoft’s name keeps popping up in these discussions, though the precise nature of their involvement remains a bit murky. So far, all companies have chosen to keep mum on the topic.
TikTok is massive, especially among the Gen Z and Gen Alpha crowd. It’s fair to say that while Meta has Facebook and Instagram, Google has YouTube, and Amazon has Twitch, Microsoft’s biggest social network play to date has been LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is certainly a thriving business, but it’s more about professional networking than setting cultural trends. If Microsoft could get its hands on TikTok, it might infuse a new level of vibrancy into its consumer platforms like Windows, Surface, and Xbox. Imagine a seamless TikTok-Xbox integration or even a video editing tool powered by TikTok within Windows itself. Of course, we’ve seen similar predictions before—remember the chatter when Microsoft bought Skype?
Realistically, Microsoft’s direct purchase of TikTok seems improbable. Their relationship is likely rooted in their current Azure AI partnership, since TikTok relies on Microsoft’s Azure for many of its machine learning tools. However, the majority of TikTok’s infrastructure is actually hosted with Oracle. So, if anything, Microsoft’s role might be limited to their Azure services contract.
But hey, what if things go differently?
