Trump attributes his reelection last year to TikTok, which has 170 million users in the US. WASHINGTON: In an executive order signed Thursday, President Donald Trump stated that his intention to sell the US operations of Chinese-owned TikTok to American and international investors would comply with the national security criteria of a 2024 legislation. Vice President JD Vance stated that the new US firm will be valued at approximately $14 billion, which is far less than certain analyst projections for the price of the well-known short video app.
In an attempt to remove TikTok’s US assets from the global platform, align American and other investors, and gain Chinese government agreement, Trump on Thursday postponed until January 20 the implementation of the law that forbids the app unless its Chinese owners sell it. The executive order’s release indicates that Trump is moving forward with selling TikTok’s US assets, but many issues still need to be clarified, such as how the US corporation would use TikTok’s most valuable asset—its recommendation algorithm.
“There was some resistance on the Chinese side, but the fundamental thing that we wanted to accomplish is that we wanted to keep TikTok operating, but we also wanted to make sure that we protected Americans’ data privacy as required by law,” Vance told reporters during a briefing in the Oval Office. According to Trump’s decision, the new joint venture will be in charge of operating the algorithm and the US company’s security partners will retrain and oversee it. According to Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping has expressed support for the proposals. “I spoke with President Xi,” mentioned Trump. “We had a good talk, I told him what we were doing, and he said go ahead with it.”
A request for comment was not immediately answered by the Chinese embassy in Washington. TikTok refrained from commenting on Trump’s decision right away. With 170 million users in the US, TikTok has been credited by Trump with helping him win reelection last year. Trump’s personal TikTok account has 15 million followers. Last month, the White House also opened an official TikTok account. “This is going to be American-operated all the way,” Trump stated. Rupert Murdoch, the chairman emeritus of newspaper publisher News Corp, Michael Dell, the founder, chairman, and CEO of Dell Technologies, and “probably four or five absolutely world-class investors” will also be involved, he claimed.
How the White House arrived at the $14 billion assessment was not disclosed. According to its new employee share repurchase plan, ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, currently has a market value of almost $330 billion. A tiny portion of the business’s overall revenue comes from TikTok. As of April 2025, TikTok was valued between $30 billion and $40 billion without the algorithm, according to Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. The executive order raises uncertainties, such as whether ByteDance will continue to have authority over the algorithm, according to Alan Rozenshtein, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School. “The problem is that the president has certified the deal, but he has not provided a lot of information on the algorithm,” he stated.
In the US, Oracle and others will own TikTok. According to two people familiar with the transaction, a consortium of three investors, including Oracle and private equity company Silver Lake, will acquire approximately 50% of TikTok US on Thursday. According to one of the reports, a group of ByteDance’s current shareholders will own about 30% of the company. KKR, General Atlantic, and Susquehanna International Group are some of ByteDance’s present investors. According to the source, the 50% ownership may yet change given the high level of investor interest in TikTok. Requests for comment were not immediately answered by Oracle or Silver Lake. According to a previous report by CNBC, which cited sources, MGX, Oracle, and Silver Lake, all based in Abu Dhabi, are expected to hold a combined 45% ownership stake in TikTok US.
A request for comment from NewsPaper regarding the CNBC article was not immediately answered by MGX. To make sure the agreement marks a clean break with China, Republican members of the House of Representatives stated that they would like to see more information about it. US Representatives Brett Guthrie, Gus Bilirakis, and Richard Hudson, all Republicans, stated, “As the details are finalized, we must ensure that this deal protects American users from the influence and surveillance of CCP-aligned groups.” According to a senior White House official on Saturday, ByteDance has appointed one of the seven board members for the new organization as part of the agreement on TikTok’s US activities, with Americans occupying the remaining six seats.
In order to meet the criteria of the 2024 law, which mandated that TikTok US shut down by January 2025 if ByteDance did not sell its US holdings, ByteDance would possess less than 20% of the company.
