As Elon Musk grew Tesla’s business in China, he publicly cozied up to its leaders on his favorite social media platform.

After years of rejecting the idea of a sale of TikTok’s US assets to an American buyer in order to avert a ban, China and ByteDance may have found an owner they could live with: Elon Musk.

Joe' host Joe Scarborough expressed on Thursday's show that he has "always been horrified" by the Chinese-owned app TikTok and said Elon Musk should not be the person to take over American operations for the social platform.

Musk acquired X (then Twitter) in October 2022 after a highly publicized back and forth, in which he gave up on the acquisition midway but ultimately closed the deal, paying $44 billion for the platform. X's user base has been on a decline since the acquisition, and advertising revenues have plummeted.

Chinese officials reportedly want ByteDance Ltd. to remain the owners of TikTok but is in discussion on how to work with the Trump Administration.

TikTok denied a report that China is exploring a sale of the app to Elon Musk to keep TikTok operational in America amid a looming U.S. ban.

Chinese officials are looking into selling the U.S. operations of TikTok to Elon Musk if the social media firm ultimately gets banned here, according to reports.

Beijing officials preparing options for after Donald Trump’s inauguration have examined possible openness to a deal for TikTok’s U.S. operations with the owner of X.

Dan Ives, Wedbush Securities global head of tech research, joins CNBC's 'The Exchange' to discuss the looming TikTok ban in the U.S.