Trump: TikTok Deal Almost Completed, Oracle And Silver Lake Become Main Investors

United States President Donald Trump (photo: x @WhiteHouse)

JAKARTA US President Donald Trump is expected to announce this week that the agreement to sell TikTok operations in the US from his parent company from China, ByteDance, has met the requirements stipulated in the 2024 law. A White House official said investors involved in the transaction included Oracle and private equity firm Silver Lake.

According to the official, ByteDance will only own less than 20% of the shares, while US TikTok will be controlled by a combined US and global company, plus a number of new investors who have no ties to ByteDance.

Trump will also sign an executive order to ratify the legality of the deal. All TikTok user data in the US will later be stored in Oracle's cloud infrastructure located in the United States.

In a statement on Sunday, September 22, Trump said business figures such as Lachlan Marijuana, Larry Ellison, and Michael Dell would participate as investors in an effort to keep TikTok operating in the US.

White House officials also confirmed that the US government believes China has approved this agreement and there will be no additional negotiations with Beijing. Even so, some additional documents still need to be completed by both sides.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington welcomed this development by saying that it was nice to see productive commercial negotiations according to market rules producing solutions that comply with Chinese law while paying attention to the interests of both parties.

Valuation of TikTok assets in the US is said to have reached billions of dollars. However, the US government will neither take board seats nor gold shares in new entities that will own US TikTok. It is not yet clear whether the US government will accept payments as a condition for approval of the deal.

Trump previously postponed law enforcement requiring TikTok to close in January 2025 if ByteDance does not sell its assets in the US. Postponement until mid-December gives time to complete the divestment process, look for new investors from the US, and ensure legal ownership complies with legal requirements.

White House officials added Trump's executive order would also include a new 120-day delay so that investors and ByteDance could finalize the deal.

This latest advancement is considered a rare breakthrough in lengthy negotiations between the world's two largest economies, which have been marked by trade warfare tensions and have made the global market nervous.