Saudi prince’s investment firm would be keen on TikTok if Musk or others buy it, CEO says

DUBAI: Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal’s investment company Kingdom Holding (KHC) would be interested in investing in ByteDance’s TikTok if Elon Musk or others offered to buy it, CEO Talal Ibrahim al-Maiman told Al Arabiya TV on Wednesday.

The search to find a buyer for the Chinese-owned popular short-video app continues in the U.S. after it went dark and was revived later by an executive order signed by President Donald Trump delaying the enforcement of a ban on it by 75 days.

Trump said on Tuesday he was open to billionaire Musk buying the app if the Tesla CEO wanted to do so.

KHC already holds stakes in Musk’s social media platform X and his artificial intelligence startup xAI.

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF holds a minority stake in KHC, with 5% of the company floated on the Saudi stock exchange.

TikTok users anxiously await its return to US app stores

Al-Maiman expected low-cost Saudi airline flynas, in which KHC has substantial shares, to be in the final stage of getting approval from Saudi regulator CMA to be listed, he added on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

While KHC, founded by Saudi Arabia’s self-styled Warren Buffett, Prince Alwaleed, holds a large diverse portfolio that includes petrochemicals, healthcare, real estate and e-commerce, the company wasn’t rushing into the cryptocurrency market.

“We support Mr. Buffet’s theory what you don’t buy with, don’t invest in, so as we cannot buy any goods with cryptocurrencies therefore we are currently not looking in investing in them,” al-Maiman said.