The bankers definitely want in despite this being a heavy lift because the fees on an estimated $20-plus billion deal could be pretty rich.

Douyin, the Chinese equivalent of TikTok, is very different and "much more pro-social," NYU professor Jonathan Haidt told Business Insider in Davos.

General Atlantic CEO and ByteDance board member Bill Ford said Wednesday that he believes TikTok soon will reach a deal to remain in the U.S.  “It’s in everybody’s interest,” Ford said

The billionaire declined to share details on his sources of financing, but said private equity firms and family offices have reached out.

TikTok owner ByteDance is reportedly still searching for non-sale options to stay in the US after the Supreme Court upheld a national security law requiring that TikTok's US operations either be shut down or sold to a non-foreign adversary.

Pausing the enforcement of the TikTok ban was one of a slew of executive orders Trump signed on Monday.

The World Economic Forum, colloquially called "Davos" after the location at which it's hosted in the Swiss mountains, is a yearly meeting of elites.

United States President Donald Trump is seemingly using TikTok, a popular social media platform owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, as a bargaining chip for Sino-US economic and trade relations, experts and market insiders said on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump this week paused a ban on the app and said he has "the right to make a deal" to try to save it. Legal experts questioned whether he can override a federal law that bans it. And the app's China-based parent company appeared open to brokering an agreement.

The CEO of investment firm General Atlantic, a board member of TikTok's parent company, said on Thursday that he was optimistic that a deal to keep the short-video app operating in the United States would be agreed.

In his first few days back in office, President Trump is talking about TikTok entirely as a deal making exercise, dropping all of his previously expressed concerns about Chinese influence and American national security.

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) -U.S. businessman Frank McCourt is open to teaming up with other buyers on a bid to take over the U.S. operations of TikTok as long as he can maintain control of the asset, he told Reuters at the Davos event on Thursday.