Donald Trump’s new social media firm says it has signed deals to raise $1bn from investors ahead of a planned stock market listing.
The Trump Media & Technology Group is working to launch a social media app called Truth Social early next year.
The company’s owner billionaire and former president Donald Trump is banned from Twitter and Facebook following the attack on the US Capitol in January.
“$1bn sends an important message to Big Tech that censorship and political discrimination must end,”
Trump said
“As our balance sheet expands, Trump Media & Technology Group will be in a stronger position to fight back against the tyranny of Big Tech.”
Trump announced plans to launch Truth Social earlier this year, saying it would allow conversation “without discrimination on the basis of political ideology”.
Truth Social is scheduled for a full rollout in the first quarter of 2022. It is the first of three stages in the Trump Media plan, followed by a subscription video-on-demand service called TMTG+ that will feature entertainment, news and podcasts, according to the news release.
In a slide deck on its website, the company envisions eventually competing against Amazon.com’s AWS cloud service and Google Cloud.
Following the 6 January attack by Trump supporters on the US Capitol in Washington DC, Trump was banned from twitter and Facebook amid concerns the then-president would inspire further violence.
Trump had 89 million followers on Twitter, 33 million on Facebook and 24.5 million on Instagram at the time he was blocked, according to a presentation on his company’s website.
Many Wall Street firms snubbed the opportunity to invest in the former president’s new venture, according to Reuters. But some hedge funds, family investment firms and high net-worth individuals have backed it.
He has also repeatedly dropped hints that he might seek the presidency again in 2024.
