BEIJING (Reuters) - ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, has earmarked over 150 billion yuan ($20.64 billion) in capital expenditure for this year, much of which will be centred on artificial intelligence, two people briefed on the matter said.

By merging with the U.S. arm of TikTok, Perplexity could emerge as a stronger search rival to Alphabet, a potential blow to Google stock.

Claims that TikTok had been sold circulated after the app went dark in response to a U.S. federal ban, then returned a short time later.

"You're ignoring the major concern here" of China manipulating content through TikTok's industry-envied algorithm and harvesting user data, Chief Justice John Roberts tells TikTok lawyer, Trump's former solicitor general.

The Supreme Court seemed to lean Thursday toward upholding a law forcing Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell off TikTok, with all nine justices indicating national security concerns posed by the social media app outweighed potential threats to free speech.

ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is required to sell the app to a U.S.-based buyer or face a nationwide ban.

US tech multibillionaires — including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos — were given prime positions at Donald Trump's inauguration on Monday, in an unprecedented demonstration of their power and influence in the White House.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew is expected to accept an invitation from President-elect Donald Trump to attend his inauguration.

The Supreme Court heard arguments on Friday debating whether to uphold the law requiring TikTok to be sold by ByteDance or shut down in the U.S. on Jan. 19.

US tech multibillionaires – including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos – were given prime ... unclear while under Chinese company ByteDance’s ownership, in defiance of a US law.

Many MAGA fans at the U.S. Capitol on Monday were skeptical of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon's Jeff Bezos suddenly backing Trump.

ByteDance, must cooperate with the Chinese government's intelligence operations. Francisco used Amazon boss Jeff Bezos and his newspaper, The Washington Post, as an example for his argument against the statement, saying that if China pressured the U.S ...