Who will buy TikTok in US? Media reveals names of potential investors
Illustrative photo: the US TikTok stake will be split among several companies (Getty Images)
The agreement for the sale of the American stake in the Chinese social network TikTok involves its acquisition by a consortium that includes well-known US companies. President Donald Trump plans to discuss the deal with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, according to Bloomberg.
It is reported that the consortium includes Oracle, which provides TikTok with data storage services, as well as the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and the investment company Silver Lake Management LLC.
The framework agreement was presented on September 15, following two days of negotiations in Madrid. It envisions the creation of a new version of the app that will be based in the US, with all the above companies receiving stakes in the new project. Oracle, however, will take a small share.
At the same time, ByteDance’s stake in TikTok will fall below 20%. This is necessary to comply with a law passed in the US in 2024, which requires the Chinese company to sell the asset, or the social network will be blocked in the US.
It is expected that users will transition to the new US-based platform. TikTok engineers are already testing the corresponding app. Oracle will continue providing cloud services for TikTok in the US and other countries.
However, several details have not yet been disclosed, including the app’s price. The US stake is estimated at $35–40 billion and continues to grow despite various challenges. It is also unknown how much each investor besides Oracle will receive.
Notably, on September 17, Trump again postponed the potential TikTok ban. The app will remain available in the country at least until mid-December, although its future remains unresolved.
On September 16, China’s international trade representative Li Chenggang confirmed that China and the US had reached a basic framework agreement on TikTok, while expressing Beijing’s dissatisfaction with what it called the "suppression" of Chinese companies.
