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Trump says China's Xi has said to go ahead with the deal

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Deal valued at $14 billion, Vice President JD Vance says

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Trump says Michael Dell, Rupert Murdoch among investors

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Oracle, Silver Lake among owners of 50% share of TikTok

US,

sources say

(Adds expert comment, new deadline from Trump)

By Jeff Mason, Dawn Chmielewski and David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, Sept 25 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump

signed an executive order on Thursday declaring that his plan to

sell Chinese-owned TikTok's U.S. operations to U.S. and global

investors will address the national security requirements in a

2024 law.

The new U.S. company will be valued at around $14 billion,

Vice President JD Vance said, putting a price tag on the popular

short video app far below some analyst estimates.

Trump on Thursday delayed until January 20 enforcement of the

law that bans the app unless its Chinese owners sell it amid

efforts to extract TikTok's U.S. assets from the global

platform, line up American and other investors, and win approval

from the Chinese government.

The publication of the executive order shows Trump is making

progress on the sale of TikTok's U.S. assets, but numerous

details need to be fleshed out, including how the U.S. entity

will use TikTok's most important asset, its recommendation

algorithm.

"There was some resistance on the Chinese side, but the

fundamental thing that we wanted to accomplish is that we wanted

to keep TikTok operating, but we also wanted to make sure that

we protected Americans' data privacy as required by law," Vance

told reporters at an Oval Office briefing.

Trump's order says the algorithm will be retrained and

monitored by the U.S. company's security partners, and operation

of the algorithm will be under the control of the new joint

venture.

Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping has indicated

approval of the plans. "I spoke with President Xi," Trump said.

"We had a good talk, I told him what we were doing, and he said

go ahead with it."

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately

respond to a request for comment. TikTok did not immediately

comment on Trump's action.

Trump has credited TikTok, which has 170 million U.S. users,

with helping him win reelection last year. Trump has 15 million

followers on his personal TikTok account. The White House also

launched an official TikTok account last month.

"This is going to be American-operated all the way," Trump

said.

He said that Michael Dell, the founder, chairman and CEO of

Dell Technologies; Rupert Murdoch, the chairman emeritus of Fox

News owner Fox Corp and newspaper publisher News Corp, and

"probably four or five absolutely world-class investors" would

be part of the deal.

The White House did not discuss how it came up with the $14

billion valuation.

TikTok's Chinese parent, ByteDance, currently values itself

at more than $330 billion, according to its new employee share

buyback plan. TikTok contributes a small percentage of the

company's total revenue.

According to Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, TikTok was

estimated to be worth $30 billion to $40 billion without the

algorithm as of April 2025.

Alan Rozenshtein, a professor at the University of Minnesota

Law School, said the executive order leaves unanswered

questions, including whether ByteDance will still control the

algorithm. "The problem is that the president has certified the

deal, but he has not provided a lot of information on the

algorithm," he said.

ORACLE AND OTHERS TO OWN TIKTOK IN THE U.S.

A group of three investors, including Oracle and

private-equity firm Silver Lake, will take a roughly 50% stake

in TikTok U.S., two sources familiar with the deal said on

Thursday.

A group of existing shareholders in ByteDance will hold a

roughly 30% stake, one of the sources said. Among ByteDance's

current investors are Susquehanna International Group, General

Atlantic and KKR.

Given intense investor interest in TikTok, the 50% stake may

still shift, the source noted.

Oracle and Silver Lake did not immediately respond to

requests for comment.

CNBC reported earlier, citing sources, that Abu Dhabi-based

MGX, Oracle and Silver Lake are poised to be the main investors

in TikTok US with a combined 45% ownership.

MGX did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for

comment on the CNBC report.

Republican House of Representatives lawmakers said they want

to see more details of the deal to ensure it represents a clean

break with China. "As the details are finalized, we must ensure

this deal protects American users from the influence and

surveillance of CCP-aligned groups," said U.S. Representatives

Brett Guthrie, Gus Bilirakis and Richard Hudson, all

Republicans.

The agreement on TikTok's U.S. operations includes the

appointment by ByteDance of one of seven board members for the

new entity, with Americans holding the other six seats, a senior

White House official said on Saturday.

ByteDance would hold less than 20% in TikTok U.S. to comply

with requirements set out in the 2024 law that ordered it shut

down by January 2025 if its U.S. assets were not sold by

ByteDance.