Trump Approves TikTok Sale to US Investors with ByteDance Stake

President Donald Trump has approved a partial sale of TikTok’s United States operations to a group of American investors, a move aimed at balancing national security concerns with the app’s continued availability to nearly 170 million American users. The decision follows the 2024 Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which requires TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest ownership or face a ban in the country.

Under the current arrangement, a consortium including Oracle, Andreessen Horowitz, Silver Lake, and other investors will take majority control of TikTok’s U.S. business. Oracle is expected to play a central role in hosting user data, retraining TikTok’s algorithm for American users, and overseeing software and security safeguards. Despite giving up board control, ByteDance will retain less than 20 percent ownership. It will also provide the algorithm on a licensed basis, with the U.S. version retrained under American oversight.

While the ownership structure appears to give American investors 80 percent control, ByteDance is expected to secure a significant portion of TikTok’s U.S. profits. Confidential terms indicate the Chinese company will earn licensing fees tied to revenue generated by the algorithm and additional profit shares in proportion to its equity stake. Analysts suggest ByteDance could ultimately receive close to half of the overall profit, leaving its financial influence strong even after divestiture.

The administration has placed further conditions on the deal. All software updates, data transfers, and algorithmic recommendation systems will be monitored by trusted U.S. partners. The framework also restricts ByteDance’s participation in security decisions. The initial value of the transaction has been reported at around 14 billion dollars, far below earlier private valuations of up to 40 billion dollars, leading some analysts to call it undervalued compared with market metrics for similar technology platforms.

The Trump administration has also asked the investors to make a multibillion-dollar payment to the federal government as part of the arrangement, reflecting a broader pattern of extracting fees or stakes in high-profile business transactions.