Trump Signs Order Approving TikTok U.S. Deal Valuing It at $14 Billion
TikTok may finally about to become legal in the U.S.: President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday paving the way for TikTok’s U.S. operations to become 80% owned by a group of American investors.
“American investors are taking it over,” Trump said about the U.S. version of TikTok in a press briefing in the Oval Office. “The young people, they really wanted this to happen.”
Vice President JD Vance, who was in attendance, said the deal values TikTok U.S. at about $14 billion. Vance said the “fundamental thing” was to ensure TikTok would remain available to Americans, while putting into place protections for their person data. U.S. users can “use it with more confidence” going forward, Vance said, adding that “it won’t be used as a propaganda.”
The deal still requires the approval of Chinese regulators before it’s official. The new ownership structure of TikTok U.S. would reduce Chinese parent company ByteDance’s ownership in the entity to 19.9%. According to Trump’s order, that makes the app a “qualified divestiture” in compliance with the U.S.’s TikTok divest-or-ban law that went into effect in January 2025. The law prohibits distribution in the U.S. of any app that is more than 20% owned by a “foreign adversary.”
Right now, there aren’t confirmed details about who the new owners are under the proposed pact. CNBC reported that Oracle, private-equity firm Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX state-owned investment firm will be the primary owners of TikTok U.S. with a combined 45% stake. Oracle, founded by Trump supporter Larry Ellison, already has provided data and computing services for TikTok’s U.S. operations. Current ByteDance investors including venture-capital firms Susquehanna International, KKR and General Atlantic are also part of the ownership group. Trump said in an interview aired Sunday on Fox News that investors in the new TikTok U.S. would likely include Fox Corp.’s Lachlan Murdoch and Dell Technologies’ Michael Dell.
Reps for TikTok and ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Trump administration wants to collect a “multibillion-dollar” fee from the TikTok U.S. investor consortium for brokering the pact with China, per the Wall Street Journal.
Trump said last week Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a deal for TikTok U.S., and China’s top trade negotiator last week said the two countries had agreed in principle on a framework for the transaction. But the final terms of the agreement still need to be OK’d by Chinese regulators.
Under a federal law that went into effect Jan. 19, 2025, it is illegal for U.S. companies to host or distribute TikTok as long as ByteDance owns more than 20% of the app. The bill passed through Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support, and was signed into law by President Biden, over fears TikTok represents a national security threat to the U.S. because of its Chinese ownership — and speculation that the Chinese government could meddle with the app to spy on U.S. citizens or spread misinformation. ByteDance and TikTok had challenged the law on First Amendment grounds but the Supreme Court rejected its appeal.
Last week, Trump delayed enforcement of the divest-or-ban law (for the fourth time) until Dec. 16 as the parties continue work to finalize the deal.
Under the Trump administration’s proposal, ByteDance would license the TikTok content-recommendation algorithm to the U.S. entity, which would operate it separately from the Chinese-controlled version of the technology. The TikTok divest-or-ban law expressly prohibits the app in the U.S. from having an “operational relationship” with a foreign adversary, including with respect to the content-recommendation algorithm.
