President Donald Trump on Thursday confirmed that a deal has been reached to secure TikTok’s future in the United States, signing an executive order that formally recognizes the arrangement as meeting the requirements of the law that threatened to ban the app.
Speaking at the White House, Trump revealed that the new US version of TikTok would be backed by a group of high-profile investors, including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, tech billionaire Michael Dell, and media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Venture capital giants Silver Lake Partners and Andreessen Horowitz are also believed to be part of the consortium.
Although many of the investors are close allies of Trump, he stressed that the app would not serve any political agenda. “If I could make it 100 percent MAGA I would, but it’s not going to work out that way unfortunately. No… every group, every philosophy, every policy, will be treated very fairly,” he said.
The president confirmed that the US version would come with a domestic adaptation of TikTok’s powerful algorithm — the driving force behind the app’s global popularity. A White House official noted that the algorithm would be “continuously monitored” to prevent any undue outside influence.
The restructuring follows a law introduced under Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, which required ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, to divest its US operations or face a nationwide ban. Washington has long argued that the app could be exploited by Beijing to harvest data or push influence through its recommendation system.
Vice President JD Vance, who oversaw negotiations, estimated the US entity’s value at around $14 billion but said final pricing would be determined by investors.
Trump also revealed that Chinese President Xi Jinping personally gave his approval for the agreement during a recent phone call. “I have great respect for President Xi, and I very much appreciate that he approved the deal, because to get it done properly, we really needed the support of China,” Trump said.
While Beijing has remained mostly reserved about the outcome, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported that Xi reiterated China’s backing for “market-based negotiations that comply with Chinese laws” during the call.
