Trump said Xi Jinping has approved a $14 billion TikTok deal with US investors
Trump claims Chinese President Xi has given his approval to the $14 billion US takeover plan for TikTok, which is supported by Oracle and Murdoch.
A agreement to find a new US owner for TikTok has been finalized, according to President Donald Trump, who has insisted that Chinese President Xi Jinping has approved it.
Trump signed an executive order on Thursday stating that the deal complied with a 2024 legislation that would have required the sale of the Chinese-owned app or its nationwide prohibition. According to him, the deal will enable TikTok to carry on with its business in America under new management.
Speaking with Vice-President JD Vance in the Oval Office, Trump claimed that a group of “sophisticated investors” will purchase TikTok’s US operations, creating a $14 billion (£10.5 billion) firm. Oracle, led by Trump ally Larry Ellison, Rupert Murdoch of Fox Corporation, Michael Dell of Dell Technologies, and private equity company Silver Lake are among of the companies expected to be involved.
According to the agreement, China’s ownership will be limited to less than 20% of the new board, and Americans will control six of the seven seats. Importantly, the algorithm—generally considered to be TikTok’s most valuable asset—will be under the control of US investors. The US app will employ a retrained version of the algorithm that is only based on American data and is supervised by “trusted security partners.” All US user data will remain on Oracle’s domestic servers.
Trump said, “China is on board,” adding that he spoke with Xi directly about the deal during a call on September 19. Trump and Xi will review the agreement at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in South Korea next month, according to the White House.
TikTok and ByteDance have not made any public remarks regarding the agreement, although the business praised both executives earlier this month “for their efforts to preserve TikTok in the United States.” But Beijing has been more circumspect, emphasizing that talks must adhere to Chinese law and find “a balance of interests.” Before the agreement is finalized, analysts anticipate that China will grant an export license for the TikTok algorithm.
The deal comes after years of US national security worries about ByteDance’s connections to Beijing and worries that Chinese authorities would obtain data from the 170 million American users of TikTok. ByteDance was given nine months to sell or risk being banned under the Biden-era law that was signed in April 2024. Trump repeatedly prolonged the date after becoming office in January 2025 to allow for further negotiations, despite TikTok calling the rule “unconstitutional” and launching a number of unsuccessful legal challenges.
Analysts caution that the future is still unclear despite relief among TikTok’s sizable network of American producers, who use the app for an average of 51 minutes per day. According to Kelsey Chickering of Forrester, “it’s unclear if this new, US-only app will be a true replica of the old one, with just as powerful of an algorithm and experience.”
