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TikTok Fans Anxiously Await Its Return to US App Stores 

TikTok still could not be downloaded from the Apple and Google app stores in the United States on Tuesday. (dpa)
TikTok still could not be downloaded from the Apple and Google app stores in the United States on Tuesday. (dpa)
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TikTok Fans Anxiously Await Its Return to US App Stores 

TikTok still could not be downloaded from the Apple and Google app stores in the United States on Tuesday. (dpa)
TikTok still could not be downloaded from the Apple and Google app stores in the United States on Tuesday. (dpa)

Three days after ByteDance's TikTok went dark and then was quickly revived in the United States, users who deleted the app were anxiously checking iPhone and Android devices to find it still unavailable to be downloaded again.

Some looking to make a quick profit from TikTok fans' desperation listed devices on eBay with the app purportedly downloaded for up to $50,000.

TikTok still could not be downloaded from the Apple and Google app stores in the United States on Tuesday, trapped in legal purgatory by the two tech giants. US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday delaying the enforcement of a ban on the Chinese-owned popular short-video app by 75 days, the legality of which is unclear.

TikTok resumed service after Trump's assurances that the company and its partners would not face hefty fines to keep the app running, but it was yet to return to app stores. Other apps owned by ByteDance, including Lemon8 and CapCut, were also no longer available.

Meanwhile the search to find a buyer for TikTok continued. Trump said on Tuesday he was open to billionaire Elon Musk's buying the app if the Tesla CEO wanted to do so.

And the chair of the House Select Committee on China, John Moolenaar, met businessmen Kevin O'Leary and Frank McCourt about the potential divestiture of TikTok.

Billionaire businessman McCourt's Project Liberty consortium has made a formal offer to buy it, valuing the app without its algorithm at around $20 billion. O'Leary joined the effort, Project Liberty said earlier this month.

In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, O’Leary said he would be interested in a TikTok deal, but it’s not possible under current law.

"That 50/50 deal, I would love to work with Trump on, so would every other potential buyer ... But the problem with some of these ideas is they are inconsistent with the ruling of the Supreme Court," the investor told CNBC.

The back-and-forth has brought out mixed feelings from users, including some who planned to abandon TikTok after seeing Trump so heavily involved in the negotiations that could result in TikTok eventually being sold to one of his allies in the tech industry.

"I do not want to continue being a pawn in this hellscape. I am not saying it will make a difference to TikTok but it will make a difference to me," said Nicole Norman, a TikTok user, on Meta's Threads app. "I will not be back on TikTok."

Others, however, want TikTok back, which is not possible as long as Apple and Google parent Alphabet do not make it available.

"I’ve been checking every day," said travel content creator Lauren Scott. Scott, 29, currently in Brazil, read in some Facebook groups that Americans abroad may be able to access the app if they deleted and re-downloaded it. But that proved not to be the case, leaving her in limbo.

The delay may be because Google and Apple are awaiting additional protections before bypassing the ban that punishes the companies for hosting or distributing the app, according to analysts.

A notice on Apple's App Store said: "TikTok and other ByteDance apps are not available in the country or region you're in". Google Play showed: "Downloads for this app are paused due to current US legal requirements."

Some users have been tinkering with multi-step processes to gain access, such as trying to change their location in their phones.

"Really hoping TikTok comes back to the app store ASAP, not wanting to do any of that VPN stuff to get it back," said Lauren Nader, a TikTok user, on Threads.

Google, Apple and TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.

US legislators last year passed a law upheld by the US Supreme Court requiring ByteDance to either sell TikTok or face a ban, citing national security concerns. Many Democratic and Republican lawmakers still want to see ByteDance sell the app.

Trump suggested the United States government should be a half-owner of TikTok's US business in return for keeping the app alive, and warned that he could impose tariffs on China if Beijing failed to approve a deal.

China indicated this week for the first time it would be open to a transaction keeping TikTok operating in the United States, with its foreign ministry saying on Monday that companies "decide independently" on matters of their operations and deals.

Some users still on TikTok have suggested that the app's algorithm is "feeling different" since it came back online, fanned by fears about the future of the tool under a new ownership structure.

TikTok welcomed users back on Sunday with the message, "Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the US!"

"I deactivated my account after it was 'back' this morning. I'm done with taking credit for the messes he starts," said TikTok user Janel Samson on Threads.

Over 200 iPhone and Android devices with the app downloaded were listed on the site for sale as of Tuesday night.

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Technology

Nvidia, Joining Big Tech Deal Spree, to License Groq Technology, Hire Executives

The Nvidia logo is seen on a graphic card package in this illustration created on August 19, 2025. (Reuters)
The Nvidia logo is seen on a graphic card package in this illustration created on August 19, 2025. (Reuters)
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Nvidia, Joining Big Tech Deal Spree, to License Groq Technology, Hire Executives

The Nvidia logo is seen on a graphic card package in this illustration created on August 19, 2025. (Reuters)
The Nvidia logo is seen on a graphic card package in this illustration created on August 19, 2025. (Reuters)

Nvidia has agreed to license chip technology from startup Groq and hire away its CEO, a veteran of Alphabet's Google, Groq said in a blog post on Wednesday.

The deal follows a familiar pattern in recent years where the world's biggest technology firms pay large sums in deals with promising startups to take their technology and talent but stop short of formally acquiring the target.

Groq specializes in what is known as inference, where artificial intelligence models that have already been trained respond to requests from users. While Nvidia dominates the market for training AI models, it faces much more competition in inference, where traditional rivals such as Advanced Micro Devices have aimed ‌to challenge it ‌as well as startups such as Groq and Cerebras Systems.

Nvidia ‌has ⁠agreed to a "non-exclusive" ‌license to Groq's technology, Groq said. It said its founder Jonathan Ross, who helped Google start its AI chip program, as well as Groq President Sunny Madra and other members of its engineering team, will join Nvidia.

A person close to Nvidia confirmed the licensing agreement.

Groq did not disclose financial details of the deal. CNBC reported that Nvidia had agreed to acquire Groq for $20 billion in cash, but neither Nvidia nor Groq commented on the report. Groq said in its blog post that it will continue to ⁠operate as an independent company with Simon Edwards as CEO and that its cloud business will continue operating.

In similar recent deals, Microsoft's ‌top AI executive came through a $650 million deal with a startup ‍that was billed as a licensing fee, and ‍Meta spent $15 billion to hire Scale AI's CEO without acquiring the entire firm. Amazon hired ‍away founders from Adept AI, and Nvidia did a similar deal this year. The deals have faced scrutiny by regulators, though none has yet been unwound.

"Antitrust would seem to be the primary risk here, though structuring the deal as a non-exclusive license may keep the fiction of competition alive (even as Groq’s leadership and, we would presume, technical talent move over to Nvidia)," Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday after Groq's announcement. And Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's "relationship with ⁠the Trump administration appears among the strongest of the key US tech companies."

Groq more than doubled its valuation to $6.9 billion from $2.8 billion in August last year, following a $750 million funding round in September.

Groq is one of a number of upstarts that do not use external high-bandwidth memory chips, freeing them from the memory crunch affecting the global chip industry. The approach, which uses a form of on-chip memory called SRAM, helps speed up interactions with chatbots and other AI models but also limits the size of the model that can be served.

Groq's primary rival in the approach is Cerebras Systems, which Reuters this month reported plans to go public as soon as next year. Groq and Cerebras have signed large deals in the Middle East.

Nvidia's Huang spent much of his biggest keynote speech of 2025 arguing that ‌Nvidia would be able to maintain its lead as AI markets shift from training to inference.

Technology

Italy Watchdog Orders Meta to Halt WhatsApp Terms Barring Rival AI Chatbots

The logo of Meta is seen at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025. (Reuters)
The logo of Meta is seen at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025. (Reuters)
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Italy Watchdog Orders Meta to Halt WhatsApp Terms Barring Rival AI Chatbots

The logo of Meta is seen at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025. (Reuters)
The logo of Meta is seen at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025. (Reuters)

Italy's antitrust authority (AGCM) on Wednesday ordered Meta Platforms to suspend contractual terms ​that could shut rival AI chatbots out of WhatsApp, as it investigates the US tech group for suspected abuse of a dominant position.

A spokesperson for Meta called the decision "fundamentally flawed," and said the emergence of AI chatbots "put a strain on our systems that ‌they were ‌not designed to support".

"We ‌will ⁠appeal," ​the ‌spokesperson added.

The move is the latest in a string by European regulators against Big Tech firms, as the EU seeks to balance support for the sector with efforts to curb its expanding influence.

Meta's conduct appeared capable of restricting "output, market ⁠access or technical development in the AI chatbot services market", ‌potentially harming consumers, AGCM ‍said.

In July, the ‍Italian regulator opened the investigation into Meta over ‍the suspected abuse of a dominant position related to WhatsApp. It widened the probe in November to cover updated terms for the messaging app's business ​platform.

"These contractual conditions completely exclude Meta AI's competitors in the AI chatbot services ⁠market from the WhatsApp platform," the watchdog said.

EU antitrust regulators launched a parallel investigation into Meta last month over the same allegations.

Europe's tough stance - a marked contrast to more lenient US regulation - has sparked industry pushback, particularly by US tech titans, and led to criticism from the administration of US President Donald Trump.

The Italian watchdog said it was coordinating with the European ‌Commission to ensure Meta's conduct was addressed "in the most effective manner".

Technology

Amazon Says Blocked 1,800 North Koreans from Applying for Jobs

Amazon logo (Reuters)
Amazon logo (Reuters)
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Amazon Says Blocked 1,800 North Koreans from Applying for Jobs

Amazon logo (Reuters)
Amazon logo (Reuters)

US tech giant Amazon said it has blocked over 1,800 North Koreans from joining the company, as Pyongyang sends large numbers of IT workers overseas to earn and launder funds.

In a post on LinkedIn, Amazon's Chief Security Officer Stephen Schmidt said last week that North Korean workers had been "attempting to secure remote IT jobs with companies worldwide, particularly in the US".

He said the firm had seen nearly a one-third rise in applications by North Koreans in the past year, reported AFP.

The North Koreans typically use "laptop farms" -- a computer in the United States operated remotely from outside the country, he said.

He warned the problem wasn't specific to Amazon and "is likely happening at scale across the industry".

Tell-tale signs of North Korean workers, Schmidt said, included wrongly formatted phone numbers and dodgy academic credentials.

In July, a woman in Arizona was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for running a laptop farm helping North Korean IT workers secure remote jobs at more than 300 US companies.

The scheme generated more than $17 million in revenue for her and North Korea, officials said.

Last year, Seoul's intelligence agency warned that North Korean operatives had used LinkedIn to pose as recruiters and approach South Koreans working at defense firms to obtain information on their technologies.

"North Korea is actively training cyber personnel and infiltrating key locations worldwide," Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP.

"Given Amazon's business nature, the motive seems largely economic, with a high likelihood that the operation was planned to steal financial assets," he added.

North Korea's cyber-warfare program dates back to at least the mid-1990s.

It has since grown into a 6,000-strong cyber unit known as Bureau 121, which operates from several countries, according to a 2020 US military report.

In November, Washington announced sanctions on eight individuals accused of being "state-sponsored hackers", whose illicit operations were conducted "to fund the regime's nuclear weapons program" by stealing and laundering money.

The US Department of the Treasury has accused North Korea-affiliated cybercriminals of stealing over $3 billion over the past three years, primarily in cryptocurrency.