WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday approving the sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations to American and global investors. He said the deal will meet the national security rules set in a 2024 law.
The new U.S. Company will be valued at around $14 billion, Vice President JD Vance told reporters, much lower than analysts’ earlier estimates of $30 to $40 billion.
Trump delayed the enforcement of the law that bans TikTok until January 20, giving time to finalize the sale, set up the U.S. entity, bring in investors, and get Beijing’s approval. The most sensitive part of the deal remains TikTok’s recommendation algorithm, which will be retrained and monitored under U.S. control.
“We wanted to keep TikTok running, but also protect Americans’ data privacy,” Vance said.
Trump added that he discussed the plan with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who “gave the go-ahead.” The Chinese embassy and TikTok have not yet commented.
Trump, who has 15 million followers on TikTok, credited the app with boosting his re-election campaign. The White House also launched its own official TikTok account last month.
He said top investors, including Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch, will be part of the new ownership group, alongside Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based MGX, who are expected to hold nearly 50% of TikTok U.S. Existing ByteDance investors like General Atlantic, KKR, and Susquehanna will keep about 30%. ByteDance itself will hold less than 20%, as required by U.S. law.
Republican lawmakers have welcomed the deal but demanded more details to ensure it creates a “clean break” with China. The new TikTok U.S. board will have seven members — six Americans and one from ByteDance.
Analysts warn that questions remain, especially around who controls the algorithm. ByteDance values itself at $330 billion, meaning the $14 billion figure shows how heavily the deal discounts TikTok without full access to its technology.
Despite the uncertainty, Trump said:
“This is going to be American-operated all the way.”
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