TikTok creators post farewell videos to their fans ahead of expected U.S. ban
Dado Ruvic | Reuters
With the prospect of TikTok disappearing in the U.S., creators on the app spent the week posting heartfelt goodbyes to their fans.
“I never even in a million years ever thought that anybody would ever just care about what I say,” Kimberly Rhoades, a creator of humorous videos, told her 3 million followers on Thursday. “If this app goes away, it was a beautiful, beautiful ride.”
A day later, the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 to uphold the law requiring a forced sale of TikTok by Chinese-parent ByteDance or a ban of the app in the U.S. The short-form video app that rose to mainstream popularity and changed the way Americans consumed social media while stuck indoors during the pandemic is set to go dark as soon as Sunday, meaning it could disappear from the web and be removed from app stores run by Apple and Google.
Congress passed the law, signed by President Joe Biden, citing national security concerns due to TikTok’s data collection practices and ties to China.
In a follow-up video on Friday, Rhoades hummed about 30 seconds of “Taps,” the military song often played at funerals. She ended by saying, “It was an honor making you laugh.”
TikTok’s fate in the U.S. now lies in the hands of President-elect Donald Trump, who originally favored a TikTok ban during his first administration, but has since flip-flopped on the matter. In December, Trump asked the Supreme Court to pause the law’s implementation and allow his administration “the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case.”
In a Friday post on his social media app Truth Social, Trump wrote, “My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!” TikTok CEO Shou Chew is one of several tech leaders expected to be in attendance at Trump’s inauguration in Washington, D.C., on Monday. In a short video, Chew thanked Trump “for his commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available” in the U.S.
Giovanna Gonzalez of Chicago demonstrates outside the U.S. Capitol following a press conference by TikTok creators to voice their opposition to the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” pending crackdown legislation on TikTok in the House of Representatives, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 12, 2024.
Craig Hudson | Reuters
Whether Trump ultimately finds a way to keep the app alive for American consumers, many TikTok creators have been preparing for an end, telling their fans to find them on other social platforms such as Google’s YouTube and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, CNBC previously reported. RedNote, a Chinese social media app and TikTok look-alike, rose to the top of Apple’s app store on Monday, indicating that TikTok’s millions of users were seeking alternatives.
The creator migration appears to have picked up steam as the ban deadline approached. Influencers like Megan Cruz used their farewell videos as an opportunity to tout the attributes of TikTok.
‘Anyone had the potential to be a leader’
“People were engaged with things like BookTok and FilmTok and the idea of being engaged in culture on TikTok because you didn’t have to be a big creator,” said Cruz, in a video posted earlier this week. “There was incentive for people to join the conversation because anyone had the potential to be a leader in a conversation, to make a point that resonated with millions of people.”
The history of TikTok as a viral sensation dates back to 2017, when ByteDance spent about $1 billion to acquire a startup called Musical.ly. ByteDance combined Musical.ly and TikTok the following year.
TikTok began making headway in the U.S. around that time, primarily as an app that young people used for short dance clips and lip-syncing videos. TikTok’s big break came during the pandemic lockdowns of 2020, when consumers were looking for ways to pass the time and connect with others online.
The app was so successful that internet giants Meta and Google launched copycat services. Meta introduced Reels for U.S. Instagram users in August 2020 and then added it to Facebook. Google rolled out YouTube Shorts in the U.S. in March 2021.
Despite the competition, TikTok continued to grow.
TikTok has about 115 million monthly active users in the U.S., compared to 258 million for YouTube, 253 million for Facebook and 131 million for Instagram, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.
Though TikTok lags its rivals in total users, the Chinese app has become a hub for creators, defined as users with more than 1,000 followers. TikTok has nearly 8.5 million users in the U.S. who fit that category, compared with about 5.2 million on Instagram and 1.1 million on YouTube, according to HypeAuditor, an influencer marketing platform.
Businessman Frank McCourt’s internet advocacy group Project Liberty announced on Jan. 9, that it had submitted a proposal to buy TikTok from ByteDance at undisclosed terms. McCourt told CNBC on Friday that “we, I believe, are the only bidder” that meets the necessary criteria of disentangling the technology from the Chinese algorithm.
If ByteDance decides to sell, potential buyers may have to spend between $40 billion and $50 billion, according to a valuation estimate of TikTok’s U.S. operations from CFRA Research Senior Vice President Angelo Zino.
Some creators, anticipating a shutdown, are letting their fans know where they can find them. Others are encouraging users not to follow them on Meta’s services, or encouraging them to take a break from social media altogether.
“I’ve been hearing a lot of people say that once TikTok is gone, you’re just going to cut social media out of your life and I encourage that – it’ll probably be really healthy for you,” said Jack Ryan, a creator with 2 million TikTok followers, in a video on Thursday thanking his fans for their support.
“I do have an Instagram. I do have a sizable following on there, but don’t follow me on Instagram,” Ryan added. “Don’t go on there. It’s brain rot. It’s gross.”
Jonas Gindin, who has more than 400,000 Tiktok followers, said in a video that a year and a half ago he was waiting tables while trying to become an actor in Los Angeles. He wasn’t having much luck.
After finding a fanbase on TikTok, Gindin said he’s managed to produce content full-time on the app.
“If we’re cooked, it’s been a ride, man,” Gindin said. “Anytime I see someone comment something positive, it means the world, bro.”
WATCH: Up to Apple and Google if they want to keep TikTok on their app stores, says NSA’s Gerstell
Jaque Silva | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Oracle’s Federal Electronic Health Record experienced a nation-wide outage on Tuesday, the Department of Veterans Affairs confirmed to CNBC.
The agency said “all users” of the company’s Federal EHR, including the VA, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, were impacted. Six VA medical centers, 26 community clinics, and remote VA sites experienced disruptions, the agency said.
“Affected VA medical facilities followed standard contingency procedures during the outage to ensure continuity of care for Veterans,” a VA spokesperson said in a statement Thursday.
An electronic health record, or an EHR, is a digital version of a patient’s medical history that’s updated by doctors and nurses. It’s crucial software within the U.S. health-care system, and outages can cause serious disruptions to patient care.
Oracle is one of the largest EHR vendors thanks to it’s $28 billion acquisition of the medical records giant Cerner in 2022.
The company’s Federal EHR initially started experiencing issues at around 8:37 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday, the VA said. Users reported that the software froze and they were unable to access applications. Access was restored and cleared by 2:05 p.m. Eastern that day after Oracle restarted the system.
Oracle is carrying out an investigation to determine what caused the outage, the VA said. Oracle did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The outage marks Oracle’s latest stumble in a thorny, years-long EHR rollout with the VA, which has been marred by patient safety concerns. The agency launched a strategic review of Cerner in 2021, before Oracle’s acquisition, and it temporarily paused deployment of the software in 2023.
Four VA facilities in Michigan are slated to deploy Oracle’s Federal EHR in 2026.
In October, Oracle unveiled a brand-new EHR equipped with fresh cloud and artificial intelligence capabilities. The early adopter program for the software begins this year, though it’s not clear if the VA has plans to utilize it.
Oracle is slated to report third-quarter fiscal 2025 earnings on Monday.
Watch: Oracle CEO Safra Catz: Being number one is very important
Broadcom CEO Hock Tan.
Lucas Jackson | Reuters
Broadcom reported first-quarter earnings on Thursday that topped analysts’ expectations, and the chipmaker offered strong guidance for the current quarter. The stock jumped 16% in extended trading.
Here’s how the company did versus LSEG consensus estimates:
- Earnings per share: $1.60 adjusted vs. $1.49 expected
- Revenue: $14.92 billion vs. $14.61 billion expected
Broadcom said it expects about $14.9 billion in second-quarter revenue, higher than the $14.76 billion forecast by Wall Street analysts. Revenue in the last quarter rose 25% from $11.96 billion a year earlier.
The company said net income increased to $5.5 billion, or $1.14 per share, from $1.33 billion, or 28 cents per share, in the same period last year.
Broadcom’s artificial intelligence business is at the center of the company’s recent boom, which saw its stock price more than double last year. The company is one of the primary data center infrastructure vendors for AI, working both on Google’s custom AI chips as well as providing essential components for networking thousands of other chips together to develop advanced AI software.
Prior to the after-hours pop, the stock was down about 23% so far in 2025, as investors rotate out of risk partly due to concern about President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Broadcom said it recorded $4.1 billion in AI revenue during the first quarter, which is 77% higher on a year-over-year basis. Those sales are reported as part of Broadcom’s semiconductor solutions business, which grew 11% on an annual basis to $8.21 billion during the quarter.
Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said in a statement that the company expects “continued strength in AI semiconductor revenue,” reaching a projected $4.4 billion in the second quarter.
In December, Broadcom said it was developing custom AI chips with three large cloud customers. Tan said on Thursday that in addition to those customers, it had “deeply engaged” with two other hyperscalers, and are working with four other potential customers to develop their own custom AI chips.
Tan said that Broadcom closely chooses partners for developing custom AI chips who can deploy the resulting product in large quantities. “To put it bluntly, we don’t do it for startups,” Tan said.
The other major part of Broadcom’s revenue comes from its infrastructure software division, which includes software from the company’s acquisition of VMware in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2023. Broadcom said it saw $6.7 billion in software sales during the quarter, a 47% increase on an annual basis.
WATCH: Chip stocks see strong performance punished by markets
Antonio Neri, CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, speaks during an interview with CNBC on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, October 20, 2023.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Hewlett Packard Enterprise shares slid 19% in extended trading on Thursday as the data center equipment maker issued quarterly and full-year guidance that came in below consensus.
Here’s how the company did in the fiscal first quarter in comparison with LSEG consensus:
- Earnings per share: 49 cents adjusted vs. 49 cents expected
- Revenue: $7.85 billion vs. $7.82 billion expected
HPE’s revenue rose 16% year over year in the quarter ending on Jan. 31, according to a statement. The company was left with profit of $598 million, or 44 cents per share, up from $387 million, or 29 cents per share, in the same quarter a year earlier. The adjusted earnings per share excludes stock-based compensation.
“We could have executed better,” CEO Antonio Neri said on a conference call with analysts. The company had higher than normal inventory for artificial intelligence servers because of a shift to next-generation Blackwell graphics processing units from Nvidia.
The backlog for AI systems rose 29% quarter over quarter to $3.1 billion. Total server revenue totaled $4.29 billion.
HPE dealt with extensive discounting in the market while selling traditional servers during the quarter, finance chief Marie Myers said. As the quarter progressed, HPE moved to limit travel and discretionary spending, she said.
“We expect pricing adjustments may negatively impact top-line growth in the near term,” Myers said.
The company said it would implement a cost-cutting program involving layoffs over the next 18 months that will lead to $350 million in gross savings by the 2027 fiscal year. Around 2,500 employees will be affected, a spokesperson said, representing about 5% of the workforce when also factoring in expected attrition. At the end of October, HPE employed 61,000 people, according to its most recent annual report.
In January, the U.S. Justice Department filed in a federal district court to stop HPE from acquiring Juniper Networks. HPE announced the proposed $14 billion deal in January 2024. The court expects a trial to begin in July, according to the statement. The deal should close by October 2025, HPE said. In December, the company had said the transaction would be done in early 2025.
HPE called for 28 cents to 34 cents in adjusted earnings per share for the fiscal second quarter, with revenue coming in between $7.2 billion and $7.6 billion. Analysts surveyed by LSEG had looked for 50 cents per share on $7.93 billion in revenue.
For the 2025 fiscal year, HPE sees $1.70 to $1.90 in adjusted earnings per share. Analysts polled by LSEG had predicted $2.13 per share.
HPE expects to update its prices to reflect higher expenses from U.S. tariffs, Neri said, adding that he has not perceived any business deterioration from President Donald Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
As of Thursday’s close, HPE shares were up about 2% so far in 2025, while the S&P 500 index was down 2%.
WATCH: HPE shares fall more than 10% after mixed earnings, layoff plans
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