Trump hints at banning Alibaba after enforcing action against TikTok

US president considering prohibiting more Chinese tech companies following decision on social media app

The US president has signalled that he could look to shut out more Chinese tech companies from the US.

The Trump administration gave an executive order on Friday, affording TikTok owner ByteDance 90 days to sell or spin off its TikTok business in the US.

Trump said there is "credible evidence" that the Chinese company might take steps that could put US national security at risk.

Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella confirmed that his company was in talks with TikTok for a possible takeover.

When asked during a news conference on Saturday about whether he will move to block more Chinese businesses such as Alibaba from operating in the US, Trump answered "Well, we're looking at other things, yes."

Alibaba has been rapidly expanding its business outside of China in recent years. The Alibaba Group increased its turnover by 35 per cent to $72bn in its fiscal 2020 ending 31 March.

This included a 62 per cent jump in its cloud revenues to $5.65bn for the year.

The Chinese firm now claims to have more than 180 million annual active consumers internationally on its retail market places.

Its cloud business already has two datacentre regions in the US - one on the west coast in Silicon Valley and another on the east coast in Virginia.

Trump's comments come after an aggressive campaign to hamstring Huawei's US operations as well as cut supply to the Chinese vendor from US companies.

The UK government this year committed to banning the Chinese giant from supplying infrastructure for its 5G network.