On Friday, President Donald Trump announced a 75-day extension of the deadline for TikTok’s forced divestment or ban, throwing a lifeline to the app just hours before it was set to go dark in the United States.

The decision follows the unraveling of a planned deal that would have shifted TikTok’s U.S. operations into American hands — a breakdown many are blaming on Trump’s sudden imposition of a 34% tariff on Chinese goods, including digital services.

But while the White House has attributed the missed April 5 deadline to China’s abrupt withdrawal from the deal talks in protest of the tariffs, others close to the negotiations say the entire schedule was overly ambitious to begin with. Even without the trade shock, few believed that any of the potential American investors were close enough to finalize a takeover by the deadline, raising questions about whether the delay was always inevitable.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said his administration had been “working very hard” to secure a deal to “SAVE TIKTOK” and emphasized that “tremendous progress” had been made. Still, he conceded that more time was needed to finalize all necessary approvals. A source familiar with the matter confirmed that Trump signed an executive order formalizing the delay.

The ban had been scheduled to take effect on Saturday. It stemmed from a law passed during the Biden administration, which required TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest the app or face an outright ban in the U.S. over national security concerns. The law was to be enforced beginning in January, but Trump delayed implementation when he took office, first by 75 days, and now by an additional 75, while pursuing a deal that would keep the app available to its 170 million U.S. users under new ownership.

According to a source familiar with the negotiations, a framework agreement had been reached earlier this week. The deal would have transferred ownership of TikTok’s U.S. operations to a new entity backed by American private equity firms, venture capital groups, and tech companies. ByteDance was expected to retain a minority stake, capped at 20%, in compliance with the divestment law. The arrangement would also prohibit TikTok’s U.S. entity from sharing data or algorithm development with ByteDance.

However, after Trump unveiled the sweeping tariff hike on China, raising import duties to 34%, Beijing balked. ByteDance representatives informed the White House on Thursday that China would no longer approve the deal under the current conditions. That left the administration scrambling to reassess its options.

While the collapse is being pinned largely on the tariff move, insiders involved in the deal say the timeline was already under severe strain. Multiple investors had expressed interest in acquiring TikTok’s U.S. assets, but none had reached the final stages of due diligence or secured the financing needed to close such a large and complex deal. Some had barely progressed beyond exploratory talks, sources said, and several were waiting for clearer regulatory guidance, particularly regarding Chinese law governing the export of tech-related intellectual property.

In Washington, the political calculus continues to shift. Although Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who is overseeing the TikTok deal, were both confident earlier this week that a deal would be in place by April 5, the latest setback has left the White House in a holding pattern.

“We hope to continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs,” Trump said in his post, adding, “We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark.’”

“We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal,” he said.

With the Chinese government now insisting that no deal will move forward without renewed negotiations on the tariffs, the administration had little choice but to delay enforcement again.

TikTok, for its part, remained silent in the hours after the announcement. ByteDance issued a brief statement acknowledging that it was in talks with the U.S. government but stressed that “key matters remain unresolved” and that any agreement would require Beijing’s approval. “An agreement has not been executed,” a spokesperson said, noting that everything is still subject to Chinese law.

In the days leading up to the deadline, TikTok CEO Shou Chew attended Trump’s inauguration ceremony, seated alongside cabinet officials and major tech CEOs — an appearance many interpreted as a signal of how seriously the company was treating the negotiations.

The app also briefly went offline in the U.S. a day before Inauguration Day, displaying a thank-you message when it came back online that read: “We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”

Still, the extended limbo continues to provoke concern on Capitol Hill. While Congress overwhelmingly backed the TikTok law last year, citing fears over data privacy, surveillance, and Chinese influence, the latest delay pushes the enforcement window far beyond what lawmakers originally envisioned. The law allows for only one 90-day extension, which can be granted if the president certifies to Congress that “significant progress” is being made toward a sale.

Some lawmakers and legal scholars quoted by CNN argue that Trump is testing the limits of that provision. “The first extension was already shaky, and this second one just compounds the legal and constitutional issues,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. “If Congress doesn’t push back, then what was the point of passing the law in the first place?”

Jeremy Goldman, principal analyst at Emarketer, said Trump’s delay follows a familiar playbook: stall the process, increase leverage, and use the ongoing uncertainty as a geopolitical bargaining chip.

“Drag out the clock, extract leverage, keep the drama simmering, and above all, make sure TikTok stays just visible enough to keep the dealmaking sharks circling,” Goldman said in a note Friday. “As long as TikTok is in limbo, Trump can keep using it as a pressure point in his broader trade war strategy with China.”

Artificial intelligence is forecast to become a $4.8 trillion global industry by 2033 — a figure that nearly equals the size of Germany’s economy. But according to a new report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the economic rewards of AI are not being evenly distributed.

The agency warns that the rapid acceleration of AI risks compounding inequality both within and between countries, while also raising red flags about job losses, creative ownership, and technological domination by a handful of wealthy nations and corporations.

UNCTAD says AI has already begun transforming economies by delivering massive productivity gains and catalyzing digital innovation. But its benefits, the agency notes, remain “highly concentrated.”

“The benefits of AI-driven automation often favor capital over labor, which could widen inequality and reduce the competitive advantage of low-cost labor in developing economies,” it said.

Most of the value is accruing to developed countries, particularly the United States and China, as well as a small group of powerful tech companies. The UN body says this concentration threatens to widen existing inequalities, particularly for developing nations that already struggle with limited digital infrastructure, inadequate investment in education and research, and exclusion from key policy discussions.

Beyond inequality, the UN also highlighted growing anxieties around job displacement. The report says 40% of global jobs could be affected by AI-driven automation, echoing previous warnings from the International Monetary Fund.

In January, the World Economic Forum released a survey showing that 41% of employers were considering reducing their workforce in areas where AI tools could take over, particularly administrative, clerical, and data-related functions. This pattern, UNCTAD warns, may hit developing countries especially hard, as many of them depend on labor-intensive sectors and a youthful workforce.

In addition to the impact on labor, UNCTAD flags that AI-driven automation tends to reward capital over labor as the deeper structural risk. This means the gains flow largely to owners of technology rather than workers. That shift, it said, could undermine the traditional comparative advantage of low-wage economies and accelerate a global race to the bottom where only the richest countries can compete in AI development, while others fall further behind.

But a newer concern has been rapidly gaining traction among artists, writers, musicians, journalists, and digital creators — the issue of copyright infringement in the age of AI.

Several reports underscore that as AI tools grow more powerful, they are increasingly being trained on vast datasets sourced from publicly available human-made content — everything from books and articles to images, music, and films. These materials, often copyrighted, are used without obtaining permission from creators or providing compensation, raising legal and ethical questions that have yet to be resolved.

Creators around the world have begun to push back with the argument that their intellectual property is being used to train systems that can then mimic or even replace their work, all without recognition or financial return. Lawsuits have already been filed against some major AI developers, with plaintiffs claiming copyright violation and unfair commercial use.

The UN report underpins this tension, warning that unchecked AI development could strip value from creative labor and undermine the already precarious livelihoods of many working in the arts and content industries.

UNCTAD also points to the fact that only a handful of companies, such as Apple, Nvidia, and Microsoft — are controlling vast swaths of the AI landscape. These firms now hold market valuations comparable to the GDP of the entire African continent. More than 40% of global corporate spending on AI research and development is concentrated among just 100 companies, most of them headquartered in the U.S. and China. This corporate consolidation is not just a matter of economics; it gives these companies outsized influence in setting the rules, deciding how AI is built, and determining who gets access.

What worries the UN is that 118 countries, most of them in the Global South — are effectively shut out of ongoing global conversations about AI governance, regulation, and ethics. Without a seat at the table, these countries risk being permanently sidelined in shaping how AI unfolds, despite standing to suffer the most if inequalities worsen.

Still, the report acknowledges that AI does not have to be a zero-sum game. It says the technology has the potential to create new industries, empower workers, and lift productivity across sectors — but only if countries invest deliberately in reskilling, education, and inclusive infrastructure.

UNCTAD called for a multilateral effort to prevent the AI boom from becoming another chapter in global economic exclusion. It recommended that governments and international institutions promote open-source AI tools to allow broader access, push for transparency around how AI models are trained and used, and establish mechanisms to ensure the fair use of intellectual property, particularly in how AI tools are trained on human-created content.

According to the report, the international community must also prioritize governance frameworks that allow all nations, not just the most technologically advanced, to participate in decision-making. That includes shared investment in AI infrastructure, data access, and regulation that protects both workers and creators.

“AI can be a catalyst for progress, innovation, and shared prosperity — but only if countries actively shape its trajectory,” the report concludes. “Strategic investments, inclusive governance, and international cooperation are key to ensuring that AI benefits all, rather than reinforcing existing divides.”

Tenacity. Unalloyed Vision. Innovation. Flawless Execution. These are words I describe Egoras, Africa’s #1 layer 1 blockchain startup, and the only company I know in Africa that links its digital assets to manufacturing output. As the firm begins the construction of Egoras GigaFactory near Aba, Abia State, to host 3000 workers, I want the world to know how it started. Hundreds of jobs have been created already and more on the way. 

If you know how to use soldering iron and can read a datasheet, there is going to be work. And if you can do industrial welding well, there is going to be a job. 

Ugoji Harry, Egoras CEO, has served his country and continent. And to Tekedia Capital members who funded this vision: big gboza. You are the best investors in the continent. 

My hobby is investing in young people and I have come to respect Nigeria’s young people.