A rumor currently circulating online suggests that Khaby Lame, known for his silent yet expressive TikTok reactions, has sold his company for a staggering $975 million.

This speculation centers on an alleged acquisition by a company named Rich Sparkle Holdings, which reportedly bought out Step Distinctive Limited, said to be Khaby’s principal enterprise.

Could this rumor hold water? It’s not entirely off the table, especially when you consider Khaby’s extraordinary and unexpected journey to fame.

If you’re not familiar with Khaby Lame (though chances are you’ve stumbled across his videos), he was born in Senegal in March 2000. His family relocated to Italy when he was an infant, eventually settling in a public housing area in Chivasso.

Before skyrocketing to social media stardom, Khaby worked in a factory in Chivasso. In March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic led to widespread shutdowns, he was laid off.

With ample free time and a smartphone, Khaby began uploading content to TikTok. He discovered a winning formula by humorously debunking overly complex life hacks, all punctuated by his signature deadpan and sarcastic expressions.

His timing could not have been better. TikTok was just taking over the planet. A planet full of people bored at home. And, perhaps most importantly, because his videos contain no spoken words, there was no language barrier to his humor.

How popular and famous is Khaby Lame? He is literally the #1 most followed person on TikTok with 160 million followers. He is confirmed to be one of the highest-paid social media influencers in the world, making $20 million per year minimum. We currently estimate his net worth at $80 million.

But Did He Really Just Make $975 Million???!!!

Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

Short answer? No. Long answer? He just entered into one of the most volatile “paper wealth” gambles in creator history.

Here’s what I found:

The overall headline – Rich Sparkle Holdings acquired Step Distinct Limited – appears to be true. I found a press release published on January 11 on prnewswire.com confirming as much:

“Rich Sparkle Holdings, a U.S.-listed company, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Step Distinctive Limited, a core company associated with Khaby Lame. The move signals a shift from one-off brand deals to a structured, exclusive, full-chain, platform-style commercialization system—designed not merely to monetize attention, but to industrialize it.“

The press release goes on to talk about a vague commercialization strategy built around Khaby Lame’s global audience, including exclusive operating rights, centralized e-commerce execution, and the use of AI-driven content systems to scale his likeness and output across multiple regions and platforms, positioning the deal as a long-term attempt to convert viral reach into a repeatable, platform-style business rather than a series of isolated influencer endorsements blah blah blah…

The press release did NOT say Khaby’s business was acquired for $975 million.

I did a little more digging.

Rich Spark Holdings is indeed a publicly listed company on the NASDAQ trading under the ticker “ANPA.US.” The company went public in July 2025 at a price per share of around $4. At that level, the company’s market cap was $40 million. For most of the last 12 months, the stock has traded at around $20 a share. At that level, the company’s market cap was around $250 million.

In the days following the press release, the stock shot up to $150 a share. At that level, the company’s market cap was briefly $1.8 billion. In the days after the press release, the stock crashed down to its current $50 a share, which gives it a market cap of $600 million:

What Is Rich Sparkle?

Before this deal, Rich Sparkle had zero history in social media, AI, or global retail. They are a financial printing company based in Hong Kong. They spend their days proofreading and printing boring legal documents like IPO prospectuses and annual reports for companies on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

In 2024, their total revenue was a measly $5.88 million. They are a micro-cap company with only 34 employees working out of a single office in Hong Kong.

For most of its short life, ANPA was a “ghost town” stock. On many days, only 10,000 to 50,000 shares changed hands. For comparison, a healthy mid-cap stock usually trades millions.

The SEC Filing

I then spent time digging through the actual regulatory filings. I got lost at first because I was looking for an 8-K until it dawned on me that I needed to be looking for a 6-K. For the uninitiated: a 6-K is what “Foreign Private Issuers” (like Rich Sparkle, which is based in the BVI and Hong Kong) use to disclose material news. It’s essentially the international version of the 8-K that U.S. companies file. Sure enough, I found a 6-K filed with the SEC on January 9, 2026.

Here is what the 6-K actually tells us:

1. It’s a “Receipt Swap,” Not a Cash Out

The filing confirms the $975 million figure, but there isn’t a single dollar of cash mentioned in the purchase price. This is an all-stock deal. Rich Sparkle is issuing 75 million new shares to buy Khaby’s company, Step Distinctive Limited.

Khaby Lame doesn’t have $975 million in his bank account today; he has a massive pile of shares in a company (ticker: ANPA) that has been trading like a heart monitor on caffeine.

2. Khaby Only Owns Part of the Pie

The rumors make it sound like Khaby is a solo billionaire. However, the SEC document explicitly states that Khaby Lame “directly and indirectly… controlled 49% of the issued share capital” of the target company.

The other 51% is held by a group of vendors and strategic partners, including Anhui Xiaoheiyang Network Technology, a massive Chinese e-commerce player. If the deal is “worth” $975 million, Khaby’s share—on paper—is closer to $477 million. Still a staggering sum, but half of what the tweets are claiming.

3. The Math of Volatility

This is where it gets sketchy. The “$975 million” valuation is based on an internal math equation, not market reality. Let’s look at what Khaby’s 49% stake (roughly 36.75 million shares) is actually worth at different price points:

• $13.00 (Agreed Val.) $975 Million $477 Million
• $50.00 (Recent Peak) $3.75 Billion $1.8 Billion
• $5.00 (Likely Floor) $375 Million $183 Million
• $1.00 (Penny Stock) $75 Million $36 Million

Given that ANPA was a $4 stock just six months ago and is currently undergoing a “Change of Control” review by Nasdaq, I think we should read these $975 headlines very skeptically.

4. The “AI Digital Twin” (Scaling Without the Human)

The most eyebrow-raising detail in the 6-K isn’t the price—it’s the AI Digital Twin. The deal explicitly grants Rich Sparkle the rights to use Khaby’s Face ID, Voice ID, and behavioral models to create an AI version of him.

The goal? A virtual Khaby that can livestream 24/7 in multiple languages. They aren’t just buying a TikToker; they’re buying the rights to a digital puppet they can operate across different time zones while the real Khaby is asleep. It’s an attempt to turn a human being into a “capital-grade asset” that never gets tired and never asks for a raise.

5. The “Three Sheep” Connection

You’ve likely never heard of Anhui Xiaoheiyang Network Technology, but in China, its parent system (Three Sheep) is an e-commerce titan. They are the ones actually running the show. They aren’t interested in “likes”; they are interested in “industrializing attention”—a phrase used in the press release that sounds like something out of a cyberpunk novel.

They are essentially trying to port the aggressive Chinese live-streaming sales model to the West, using Khaby as the global “traffic gateway.”

The Verdict:

Did Khaby Lame just make $975 million? Absolutely not. Even if we take the $975 million valuation at face value, Khaby only owns 49% of the target company. That puts his paper wealth at $477 million. And remember, that wealth is tied up in a stock (ANPA) that is currently as volatile as a crypto meme-coin and is undergoing a “Change of Control” review by Nasdaq.

What we are witnessing isn’t a simple “exit” like a tech founder selling to Google. It’s a high-stakes reverse merger where a TikTok star has traded 36 months of his life—and his digital soul (the AI twin)—for a massive pile of volatile equity.

On the other hand, how amazing would the story be if it were a normal full cash deal??!! An immigrant factory worker making hundreds of millions of dollars from silent videos is the ultimate 21st-century dream. B

I’ll keep an eye on the ticker. But for now, I’m keeping my skepticism—and my sardonic smirk—firmly in place. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ that 🙂