According to foreign media reports, ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming met Elon Musk in 2024. It is reported that Zhou Xingxing, founder of technology news website Pandlei, facilitated Zhang Yiming's connection with Musk, and the two sides had already met as early as 2014. According to Tencent Technology, Zhou Xingxing said that in 2014, he introduced Zhang Yiming to Musk and accompanied him to visit Tesla headquarters. In 2024, after Musk publicly expressed his opposition to banning TikTok, Zhou Xingxing again facilitated the contact between the two. However, it is not clear whether Musk and Zhang Yiming had an offline meeting.