Startup Perplexity AI made its second bid to buy TikTok, this time with a proposal to have the U.S. government own 50% of the platform. Lawmakers have long opposed TikTok’s algorithm since its parent company,

Perplexity is seeking to create a new $300-billion public company with TikTok's U.S. business and include investments from other investors.

Perplexity AI has submitted an updated proposal to merge with TikTok that would allow the U.S. government to take a 50 percent stake in the newly formed company, a source familiar confirmed to The

If the new proposal is accepted, the U.S. government would not have voting power or a seat on the company's board.

Perplexity AI has presented the new proposal to Byte Dance, TikTok’s parent company, as the organization searches for a U.S. buyer.

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok and that he would like to see a bidding war over the app.

Perplexity AI revised its merger offer to TikTok parent ByteDance (BDNCE) over the weekend, with a new future IPO that could open up to a 50% stake for the U.S. government, according to multiple news reports.

The revised plan reportedly includes provisions for the US government to receive stock in the new company once Perplexity AI achieves an initial public offering valued

Amid ongoing fears over TikTok, Chinese generative AI platform DeepSeek says it’s sending heaps of US user data straight to its home country, potentially setting the stage for greater scrutiny.

Unlike some chatbot rivals, the fact that DeepSeek is open source provides it with some level of protection. This means that anyone can run it on their computer and developers can tap into the API in a way that would be hard to restrict. But the DeepSeek app is still at risk.

In short, sure, the U.S. could ban DeepSeek if it wanted to. It has the capacity to ban things it doesn't like from countries it doesn't trust in order to protect its citizens' data. In the case of TikTok,