Trump signs order clearing TikTok sale to US investors, VP puts value at USD14 billion
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The news: US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order approving the sale of TikTok’s US operations from Chinese parent company ByteDance to a group of primarily American investors.
The numbers: Vice President JD Vance said the new company would be valued at about USD14 billion ($21.4 billion). Trump said he spoke with China’s President Xi Jinping, who told him to go ahead with the deal, though Beijing has not publicly confirmed its approval.
TikTok has about 170 million US users.
The context: According to details revealed so far by the White House, TikTok would be spun off into a US joint venture majority owned by American investors, including Oracle and Silver Lake and but the final details have not been made public.
Trump said investors would also include Rupert Murdoch and Michael Dell. Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the discussions, reported that Abu Dhabi-based MGX was in talks with Oracle and Silver Lake to take part and receive board seats, though the composition of the buyer group is not yet final.
ByteDance is expected to keep a minority stake, while Oracle will help secure the algorithm, which officials said will be a licensed copy retrained only with US data.
The order follows a 2024 law that requires ByteDance to divest TikTok’s American business or face a ban, which was passed to address national security concerns about data privacy and potential Chinese influence.
The sources: White House, Bloomberg, Reuters
