The AI search startup Perplexity just proposed a bid for acquiring (and transforming) TikTok, per a company blog post published Friday.
“Perplexity is singularly positioned to rebuild the TikTok algorithm without creating a monopoly, combining world-class technical capabilities with Little Tech independence,” the company wrote.
They claim they’re uniquely positioned to do this “without creating a monopoly,” unlike potential acquisitions by competitors or investor consortiums that might maintain ByteDance’s influence. The plan includes:
- Rebuilding TikTok’s algorithm from scratch “in American data centers with American oversight”
- Making the recommendation system “transparent” and open source
- Upgrading the AI infrastructure using Nvidia Dynamo technology
- Adding citation capabilities to videos similar to Perplexity’s existing features
- Integrating Perplexity’s search capabilities with TikTok’s video library
- Enhancing personalization for users who connect Perplexity and TikTok accounts (which, the startup claims, “could help surface more relevant content on TikTok”)
- Adding multilingual capabilities through automatic translation
ByteDance, the China-based owner of TikTok, has been reluctant to sell the company’s U.S operations — which has led to a lot of whiplash for users. After the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S could actually ban the social media app in January, the app went dark for approximately 14 hours. President Trump then signed an executive order that provided a 75 day delay of the TikTok ban (which is slated to expire soon, on April 5).
Perplexity first made its bid to buy TikTok back in January, but the startup is shadowed by bigger competition: Oracle, Microsoft, and a consortium of investors led by Frank McCourt are some of the contenders looking to buy TikTok’s U.S. operations. It isn’t clear whether TikTok is taking Perplexity’s bid seriously — some analysts value TikTok’s operations between $30 billion to $50 billion. Bloomberg recently reported that Perplexity is in “early talks” for a new round of funding that would value it at $18 billion.
The startup, which was founded in 2022, is known for its stunts. Perplexity recently aired a commercial featuring Squid Game actor Lee Jung-jae that mocked Google’s AI Overviews blunder. (Perplexity CBO Dmitry Shevelenko told me at the time the startup was spending “$2.5M+ on media buy” in the US for the ad.) The company also attempted to sponsor an F1 team for $5 million a year and claimed to hire actor Jimmy O. Yang (who starred in the TV show Silicon Valley) as its Chief Security Officer. Given this track record, it’s unclear whether the TikTok bid is real or just another publicity stunt.