Apple and Google instructed by House committee to prepare to dump TikTok next month
A supporter holds up a sign that read “TikTok” during a news conference on TikTok in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on March 22, 2023.
Alex Wong | Getty Images
House Committee members are urging the top executives of Apple and Google to be prepared to comply with a law that could result in TikTok facing an effective ban in the U.S. next month
Letters were sent on Friday to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai from Reps. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, reminding them of their responsibilities as app store operators.
The lawmakers were referring to last week’s decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to uphold a law that requires China’s ByteDance to divest TikTok by Jan. 19. If ByteDance fails to sell TikTok by that date, Apple and Google will be required by law to ensure that their platforms no longer support the TikTok app in the U.S., the lawmakers wrote.
“As you know, without a qualified divestiture, the Act makes it unlawful to ‘[p]rovid[e] services to distribute, maintain, or update such foreign adversary controlled application (including any source code of such application) by means of a marketplace (including an online mobile application store) through which users within the land or maritime borders of the United States may access, maintain, or update such application,'” the lawmakers wrote in the letters.
They also sent a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, reviewing the court decision. They said that since President Joe Biden passed the original TikTok law in April, “Congress has provided ample time for TikTok to take the necessary steps to come into compliance.”
“Indeed, TikTok has had 233 days and counting to pursue a solution that protects U.S. national security,” the lawmakers wrote.
Although TikTok called the law unconstitutional and said it violates the First Amendment rights of its 170 million users, a three-judge panel on the appeals court rejected that argument and said in an opinion that the law “is narrowly tailored to protect national security.”
TikTok has since filed an emergency motion for an injunction to stop the ban from taking effect until the U.S. Supreme court can hear its appeal. The company warned that one month of a U.S. ban would result in U.S. small businesses and social media creators losing $1.3 billion in sales and earnings.
President-elect Donald Trump has not publicly stated whether he plans to enforce the effective TikTok ban when he officially takes office on Jan. 20.
Trump tried to push through a ban in his first administration, but his rhetoric on TikTok began to turn after the president-elect met in February with billionaire Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor and a major investor in the Chinese-owned social media app.
Yass’ trading firm Susquehanna International Group owns a 15% stake in ByteDance, while Yass maintains a 7% stake in the company, equating to about $21 billion, NBC and CNBC reported in March. That month it was also reported that Yass was a part owner of the business that merged with the parent company of Trump’s Truth Social.
Google declined CNBC’s request for comment.
Apple and TikTok did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.
Jensen Huang, NVIDIA founder and CEO, has a Q&A session at a press conference during the APEC CEO summit on October 31, 2025 in Gyeongju, South Korea.
Woohae Cho | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Even Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang couldn’t save the tech and artificial intelligence trade this week.
The chip giant’s talismanic leader trumpeted “off the charts” chip sales and dismissed talk of an “AI bubble,” and for a while, the tide lifted all boats.
“There’s been a lot of talk about an AI bubble,” Huang said during an earnings call this week. “From our vantage point, we see something very different.”
The buzz from the blowout report quickly reversed, sending the AI winners deeply into the red — and few beneficiaries were left unscathed.
Every member of the Magnificent 7, except for Alphabet, was tracking for a losing week, with Nvidia, Amazon and Microsoft staring down the biggest losses.
Amazon and Microsoft have led the group’s drop lower, falling about 6% this week. Meanwhile, Alphabet has gained nearly 8%. The search giant is also the only megacap of the group on pace for November gains thanks to a boost from the launch of Gemini 3.
Oracle, which is another major Nvidia customer, slumped about 10%. The chipmaker also supplies major model developers such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
Chip stocks have also declined amid the broader tech market turmoil. Advanced Micro Devices and Micron were on pace for 17% losses. Marvell Technology has slumped about 10%. Quantum computing stocks Rigetti, IonQ and D-Wave have dropped at least 10%
CoreWeave, which buys and rents out Nvidia’s chips in data centers, initially soared on the chipmaker’s earnings report, but swiftly reversed course. The company’s stock is looking at an 8% blow this week.
AI fever was cooling in the runup to Nvidia’s earnings report on Wednesday, and investors looked to the print to alleviate fears that the AI bubble was on shaky ground. Since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, the stock has helped power the market to new all-time highs.
But concerns have mounted in recent weeks as tech stocks hit stretched valuations.
Major investors, including Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio told CNBC Thursday that the market is definitely in a bubble.
Much of the worries have stemmed from a boom in capital expenditures spending to support AI, with few signs of a payoff in view for many of the players.
Investor Michael Burry recently accused some of the biggest cloud and infrastructure providers of understating depreciation expenses and estimating a longer life cycle for their chips, calling it “one of the more common frauds of the modern era.”
Earlier this month, Burry revealed bets against Nvidia and Palantir.
Shares of the software analytics company, which supplies AI tools to the government and businesses, are down 11% this week. The stock has shed nearly a quarter of its value this month.
WATCH: Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio: We are definitely in a bubble, but that doesn’t mean you should sell
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