President Trump is expected to sign a TikTok deal this week that would give American investors majority control and allow a US-based company to safeguard users’ data, a senior White House official said Monday.
Under the deal, TikTok operations will be moved into a joint venture that will be based in the US, with Oracle – co-founded by billionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison – serving as the app’s security provider.
Existing investors and new American backers like Oracle and private-equity firm Silver Lake will together own about 80% of the company – sinking Chinese parent ByteDance’s stake to less than 20%.
The new company will be led by a seven-member board of directors. ByteDance will only be allowed to nominate one member.
Data from at least 170 million Americans will be analyzed, “retrained” and “continuously monitored” by Oracle, per the official. China will not be able to access US user data under the new agreement.
Determining control of the algorithm involving users’ data was a sticking point in the negotiations with China, the White House official said.
ByteDance is expected to copy the algorithm it uses to recommend content to users and lease it to the new controlling entity, according to the Journal.
Trump has indicated that several US-based investors are interested as well. The administration is looking for “patriots that love America” and have knowledge of national security and cyber security, the White House official added.
Michael Dell, the chief executive of Dell Technologies, was “involved” in the deal, and Lachlan Murdoch and Rupert Murdoch will also “probably be in the group,” Trump told Fox News on Sunday.
Lachlan serves as chairman of News Corp, which owns The Post, and CEO of sister company Fox Corp.
The White House stressed that by “saving” TikTok, the administration is going to save “thousands of jobs” and small businesses. The official predicted that it will save “hundreds of billions of dollars over the next five years.”
The government is also expected to receive a multibillion-dollar fee for orchestrating the deal, according to the Journal.
The president had previously ignored provisions in a law passed by Congress last year and upheld by the Supreme Court that forced TikTok to divest from its parent company, the Beijing-based ByteDance.
By law, ByteDance is required to hold less than 20% of equity in the US operation.
China hawks in Congress were particularly concerned about American data potentially being harvested by foreign adversaries and the algorithm being controlled by China. Millions of young people in the US have also been influenced by the kind of content hosted on the app.
Trump gave three extensions on the ban as he ironed out the details, arguing that the app has “tremendous value,” and that his executive order power gave him the right to override the congressional ban.
He stressed that his presence on TikTok was one of the factors that made him win the 2024 election.
The president first issued a 75-day extension on the impending ban when he came into office, announced another 75-day delay in April and gave an additional 90-day push in June.
The details of the deal came together as US and Chinese officials met in Madrid, Spain, last week, and Trump spoke to Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the phone Friday.
Trump said Friday Xi had “approved” the TikTok deal, but then clarified that “we look forward to getting that deal closed.”
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