Steven T. Mnuchin, 77th US Secretary of the Treasury; Founder and managing partner of Liberty Strategic Capital, speaks at the Milken Institute 2023 Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, US, on May 2, 2023.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he is gathering an investor group to try to buy TikTok.
Mnuchin's comments come shortly after the House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a bill that would force ByteDance to divest TikTok or the social media site would face a ban in the United States.
“I think the legislation should pass and I think it should be sold,” Mnuchin told CNBC's “Squawk Box” on Thursday. “It's a great business and I'm going to form a group to buy TikTok.”
The bill now heads to the Senate, where its future is uncertain, although President Joe Biden's administration has indicated he will sign the legislation if it passes.
“This company should be owned by American companies,” Mnuchin said. “There is no way the Chinese would allow an American company to own something like this in China.”
Lawmakers from both parties have highlighted TikTok's reach in the United States — by their own estimates, 170 million Americans use the app — as providing the Chinese government with access and influence over the United States.
Top tech investors, including Peter Thiel, Vinod Khosla, and Keith Rabois, have publicly or privately criticized the social media platform as a harmful influence.
Mnuchin did not specify the identity of the other investors in such a deal or the potential valuation of the social networking site.
This wouldn't be the first high-profile deal Mnuchin has been involved in since leaving the Treasury Department. Last week, Mnuchin's Liberty Strategic Capital was a lead investor in a $1 billion capital raise to stabilize New York Community Bancorp.
Mnuchin served as Treasury Secretary under former President Donald Trump. That administration also took a hostile stance toward TikTok, which eventually led to ByteDance striking a data partnership with Oracle. Trump has since reversed course and opposed the TikTok ban.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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