Khaby Lame started posting videos on TikTok in 2020 as a coping mechanism after being laid off from his factory machine labor job at the onset of the pandemic. In videos of him silently doing things like applying butter to a pan, his deadpan humor gained him quick fame and earned him the label the “Gen Z Charlie Chaplin.”
Lame kept at it, and in just six years, the 25-year-old built a massive following, becoming the most popular creator on TikTok with more than 160 million followers on the platform. The last seven months have been downright Chaplinesque, as he saw himself deported from the U.S. and sealing a nearly billion-dollar business deal for his business and AI likeness.
According to a public SEC filing, Lame has sold his company Step Distinctive Limited—which manages his brand and commercial activities—to Rich Sparkle Holdings, a Hong Kong-based holding company, in an all-stock deal worth $975 million. That includes access to Lame’s livestream and short-video commerce, TikTok Shop, brand endorsements, and ad productions—and the commercial development of an AI digital twin, which authorizes use of the creator’s image, voice, and behavior to generate multilingual and original, multi-version content. Rich Sparkle expects the partnership to net $4 billion in annual sales.
