President Donald Trump confirmed that Microsoft is in the running to acquire TikTok, the social media app that is technically banned in the US.

Outgoing President Joe Biden's law blocking US companies from working with the platform came into force earlier this month, causing it to go offline, but Trump signed an executive order delaying the ban by 75 days.

The order does not actually supersede a congressional act, but it was enough for cloud hosting platform Oracle to bring the site back online while negotiations continue.

Oracle - which was selected alongside Walmart by Trump to take over TikTok US during a separate ban attempt - is also believed to be in the running. This time, Walmart is not involved.

Asked if Microsoft, which pitched to buy the business back in 2020, was looking to buy TikTok this time, Trump said "I would say yes." He added: "A lot of interest in TikTok. There’s great interest in, TikTok."

Alongside the two cloud companies, AI startup Perplexity AI has proposed merging with TikTok, giving the US government up to half of the company in return.

YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, known as MrBeast, said that he was in discussions with several buyers to make a bid. Billionaire Frank McCourt, a US real estate mogul and the former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, has also thrown his hat into the ring, with the support of a consortium of law firms, technologists, academics, and citizens.

Elon Musk has also been suggested as a potential buyer. The world's richest person, Musk owns rival social media site X, and is technically a White House official.