On Monday, President Donald Trump informed reporters that Microsoft is currently negotiating to purchase TikTok, expressing his hope for a competitive bidding process for the popular app.

Microsoft chose not to provide any comments on the situation. Likewise, TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, had no immediate response to inquiries from Reuters outside of standard business hours.

TikTok, which boasts around 170 million users in the United States, was temporarily taken offline shortly before a law was set to require its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to either sell the app due to national security issues or face a ban on January 19.

After taking office on January 20, Trump issued an executive order aimed at postponing the enforcement of this law by 75 days.

Last week, Trump mentioned that he was in discussions with various parties about purchasing TikTok, anticipating that a decision regarding the app’s future would be reached within the next month.

The president has previously indicated he would support billionaire Elon Musk in acquiring the social media platform, should Musk choose to pursue that interest. However, Musk has yet to publicly respond to Trump’s suggestion.

In a more recent development, Perplexity AI, an artificial intelligence startup, put forward a plan to merge with TikTok, proposing that the U.S. government could hold up to 50% ownership of the new entity, as reported by a source to Reuters on Sunday.

These negotiations represent the second time Microsoft has been considered a potential buyer for TikTok.

During his first term, Trump mandated that TikTok’s U.S. operations separate from ByteDance due to concerns over national security.

Microsoft was a leading bidder back in 2020, but discussions quickly fell apart, and the push for divestment came to an end a few months later when Trump left office.

Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, referred to the deal as the “strangest thing I’ve ever worked on.”

“In 2021, he mentioned that the U.S. government provided a specific set of requirements before the talks simply vanished.”

This article has been updated to include new details.

Reported by Nandita Bose, Costas Pitas, and Shubham Kalia; additional reporting by Chandni Shah; edited by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Stephen Coates