AFP, San Francisco

Amazon has made a last-minute bid to buy TikTok, which faces a US ban if not sold by its Chinese owner, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

The offer arrived in a letter to officials involved in talks regarding the sale of TikTok to appease US national security concerns, according to the New York Times.

Amazon declined to comment on the report.

President Donald Trump has downplayed risks that TikTok is in danger of being banned in the United States, saying he remains confident of finding a buyer for the app’s US business by a Saturday deadline.

US media reported that Trump plans to meet with top White House officials on Wednesday to discuss possible solutions.

The Times added that its sources said the parties involved in the talks did not appear to be taking Amazon’s bid seriously.

According to reports, the most likely solution would see existing US investors in ByteDance roll over their stakes into a new independent global TikTok company.

Additional US investors, including Oracle and Blackstone, the private equity firm, would be brought on to reduce the proportion of Chinese investors.

Much of TikTok’s US activity is already housed on Oracle servers, and the company’s chairman, Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump ally.

The hugely popular video-sharing app, which has over 170 million American users, is under threat from a law that passed overwhelmingly last year and orders TikTok to split from its Chinese owner ByteDance or face a ban in the United States.

Motivated by widespread belief in Washington that TikTok is ultimately controlled by the Chinese government, the law took effect on January 19, one day before Trump’s inauguration.