The former Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, is looking for ways to build algorithms to recreate TikTok’s recommendations. He is working to find an AI firm to partner with for this very purpose, reported the New York Post. He previously startled investors when he said that he would like to replicate the algorithms in the states if he succeeds in buying the China owned app. Mnuchin also leads Liberty Strategic Capital, which is based in Washington.
Pocketing TikTok, but is it a far fetched idea?
In March, an ex-cabinet member of Donald Trump, Mnuchin, said that he was going to put together a group of investors to purchase the Chinese video app TikTok. His statement came after US lawmakers passed a bill that would force Beijing based ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, to sell shares within a six-month period or it will have to face a total ban in the US. While talking to CNBC, Steve Mnuchin said,
“I think the legislation should pass and I think it should be sold.”
He added,
“It’s a great business and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok.”
Source: CNBC.
According to people familiar with the matter, Mnuchin is proposing to rebuild the algorithms of TikTok inside the US, as he thinks this is the only solution to ease the doubts of Congress about TikTok being a national security risk and also China’s strict laws, which will also hinder the sale.
Later this year, the Senate will conduct a hearing on the bill that was presented in the House. For rebuilding TikTok algorithms, Mnuchin will have to partner with a firm well versed in artificial intelligence and with proper expertise in the field. As the project at hand will be complex, and he might have to partner with more than just one firm, according to the sources of the New York Post.
Oracle can be a partner if Mnuchin scores the bid
Oracle is considered to be the best candidate to partner with Mnuchin. Tobin Marcus, an ex-economic adviser to then Vice President Joe Biden, said, mentioning Oracle, that
“make sense, given how involved they’ve been in the history of this saga.”
Source: New York Post.
The saga is that once Oracle was nearing to buy major stakes in TikTok, during the Trump government’s efforts to force TikTok’s mother company to divest, Mnuchin was Treasury Secretary at that time. Experts thought that Oracle’s acquisition of ByteDance may not draw as much regulatory assessment as would in the case of another tech giant’s acquisition like those of Meta, Apple, or may be Google.
According to the New York Post, many other experts also think that Oracle is the best logical choice to join Mnuchin in his major acquisition attempt. As TikTok has also already vowed to store US user data on Oracle servers to please US national security concerns.
Mnuchin is confident that China may not oppose the sale if no transfer of tech is involved. However, critics have criticized Mnuchin for his plan to be too outlandish. Bloomberg estimated the US business of TikTok to be valued up to $40 billion, but others have estimated it to be $100 billion or even more, considering the fact that the app hosts 170 million US users, so a bigger price tag would be no surprise.
Original report can be seen at New York Post.
