A billionaire investor interested in buying TikTok's US unit told the BBC he was left in limbo as the app's sale deadline approaches.
The US has repeatedly delayed the date by which Chinese platform owner Bytedance must sell or block the platform for US users.
US President Donald Trump appeared poised to extend the deadline for a fifth time on Tuesday.
“We're just standing on the sidelines and waiting to see what happens,” investor Frank McCourt told BBC News.
“But if the moment comes, we are ready to move on… we have raised capital to buy it – we’ll see.”
The popular short-video app was due to be banned or sold in the US in January under a law passed by Congress in 2024.
Lawmakers said at the time that ByteDance's ties to the Chinese government threatened national security and raised concerns that Beijing could force the company to hand over user data from the United States.
This is a concern that TikTok and its owners have always considered unfounded.
The law was signed by President Joe Biden while he was still in office and was upheld by the Supreme Court in early 2025.
Trump and members of his administration previously claimed that a deal with TikTok had been concludedand received the blessing of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The President also called “sophisticated” US investors I would buy the appincluding two of his allies: Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison and Michael Dell of Dell Technologies.
Trump administration officials said the deal would be formalized at a meeting between Trump and Xi Jinping in October, but it ended without an agreement.
Neither TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance nor Beijing have since announced approval of the sale, despite Trump's claims.
This time there are no such statements, a deal is imminent, leading most analysts to conclude that another extension is inevitable.
Without naming Mr Trump's handpicked investors, Mr McCourt told the BBC he was concerned about “the concentration of power and influence because platforms like TikTok have a lot of influence”.
He is part of a group of investors that includes Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and Canadian investor Kevin O'Leary.
“I hope that whatever happens, it will be closed or sold and get into the hands of people who follow the law,” he said.
He said he wants to use TikTok without any Chinese technology, including a powerful recommendation algorithm. and that his nonprofit Project Liberty has developed another technology that can be used instead.
