What’s Really Going On With the U.S.

TikTok, the video-sharing app owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, has spent the last four years at the center of a major political and national security storm in the United States. Washington has long feared that the Chinese government could use the app to access sensitive user data, and this suspicion has repeatedly brought the platform under scrutiny.

As a result, American users have often found themselves caught in the middle of this geopolitical tug-of-war. Earlier this year, TikTok faced a temporary shutdown in the U.S., leaving millions of users in suspense until the app was quickly reinstated. It returned to the App Store and Google Play in February.

Now, with multiple investors vying to purchase TikTok’s U.S. operations — and after former President Donald Trump extended the deadline for a potential ban for the fourth time — there are signs that a breakthrough is finally in sight.

Trump Greenlights a Deal

On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order approving the sale of TikTok’s U.S. business to an American-led investor group. According to Vice President J.D. Vance, the deal could value TikTok’s U.S. arm at around $14 billion — although CFRA Research’s Angelo Zino previously estimated the figure could reach $60 billion if a deal were completed.

Just a week earlier, Trump had revealed that Chinese President Xi Jinping had signed off on the arrangement, which would allow a U.S. investor consortium to take control of the platform. ByteDance publicly stated that it would ensure TikTok remains available to American users.

Who Will Own TikTok in the U.S.?

Reports suggest that a “framework agreement” has been reached between Washington and Beijing. Under this structure, a consortium including Oracle, Silver Lake, and Andreessen Horowitz is expected to oversee TikTok’s U.S. operations.

The group is likely to hold an 80% controlling stake, while Chinese stakeholders retain the remaining 20%.
The new company’s board of directors will be primarily composed of American members, with one seat appointed directly by the U.S. government.

During a recent interview with Fox News, Trump hinted that Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan may also have a role in the deal, alongside Oracle’s Executive Chairman Larry Ellison and Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell.

Oracle, which already provides cloud infrastructure for TikTok and manages its U.S. user data, is expected to handle the app’s security and data protection operations. Notably, Oracle previously attempted to acquire TikTok in 2020.

According to a White House official, part of the proposed arrangement would see Oracle duplicate and secure a U.S.-specific version of TikTok’s algorithm. The American-owned TikTok entity would then license the algorithm from ByteDance, which Oracle would subsequently retrain and manage.

Importantly, ByteDance would have no access to U.S. user data and no influence over the American algorithm.

What Users Should Expect

Bloomberg reports that once the deal is finalized, the current TikTok app will be shut down in the U.S., and users will have to migrate to a new platform. However, details about this new platform — including its features and differences from the original app — remain unclear.

How We Got Here: A Brief History

To understand how this saga unfolded, we need to rewind to August 2020, when President Trump signed an executive order banning transactions with ByteDance.

September 2020: The Trump administration attempted to force ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to an American company. Potential buyers included Microsoft, Oracle, and Walmart. However, a federal judge temporarily blocked the order, allowing TikTok to continue operating amid ongoing legal battles.
2021–2022: Under President Joe Biden, momentum against TikTok grew. Congress passed a bill targeting the app, which Biden signed into law.
TikTok responded by suing the U.S. government, challenging the ban as unconstitutional and claiming it violated First Amendment rights. The company has consistently denied posing a national security risk, stressing that all U.S. user data is stored in compliance with American laws.

Fast forward to today: Trump has shifted his stance since his first term and is now pursuing a 50-50 ownership model between ByteDance and a U.S. entity.

The Bidders: Who’s in the Race?

Several major investor groups are competing to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations:

Project Liberty Consortium, led by Frank McCourt, is spearheading a “People’s Bid” backed by Guggenheim Securities and Kirkland & Ellis. Supporters include Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, TV personality Kevin O’Leary, Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the World Wide Web), and senior research scientist David Clark.
American Investor Consortium, led by Employer.com founder Jesse Tinsley, features Roblox co-founder David Baszucki, Anchorage Digital co-founder Nathan McCauley, and prominent YouTuber MrBeast.

Other contenders have included Amazon, AppLovin, Microsoft, Perplexity AI, Rumble, Walmart, Zoop, former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, and former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Bottom Line: The future of TikTok in the United States is now closer to resolution than it’s ever been — but the final shape of the deal could redefine not just who controls the app, but also how millions of Americans use it. A new platform, a new algorithm, and a new ownership structure could transform TikTok from a Chinese export into a thoroughly American product — or something entirely different.