Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free

Oracle will have oversight and provide security for a US version of TikTok’s algorithm, as part of a deal orchestrated by President Donald Trump to force a divestiture of the American arm of the Chinese-owned viral video app.

White House officials said on Monday the arrangement would ensure that US buyers would retain control of the app’s recommendation software after its TikTok US operations are spun off by its Chinese owner ByteDance.

These new American owners would lease a copy of the algorithm from ByteDance that would then be rebuilt by the US arm. Oracle would ensure that the app was not accessible from China. Further technical details on how this would be achieved have not been announced.

“Oracle will operate in partnership with the US government to ensure safety and data security across the entire TikTok platform — from source code review, to algorithm retraining, to application development and deployment,” said a White House official.

William Martin, communications director to vice-president JD Vance, said in a post on X on Monday that the new deal would mean Oracle oversees the operation of the app’s algorithm.

A White House official said Trump would issue an executive order later this week that would provide a 120-day window to finalise the contours of the deal, including which investors would be part of the joint venture.

Speaking after US and Chinese negotiators reached a deal on TikTok in Madrid last week, a top Chinese regulator said the US spin-off would use ByteDance’s algorithm. He said both sides had agreed on a framework that included “licensing the algorithm and other intellectual property rights”.

The White House official said the deal would bring TikTok’s algorithm under the control of the US joint venture. He said the venture would retrain the algorithm using US data that would not be shared outside of America.

The official said the White House was “confident” that Beijing backed the deal but added that the joint venture would require regulatory approvals in China and the US, which would come during the 120-day closing period.

The official said ByteDance would sign a framework agreement with one or more of the managing investors after the EO and would sign a closing document with the full consortium once everything was finalised.

Underpinning any deal is an agreement that data for TikTok’s roughly 170mn US users will be stored on Oracle’s servers, which already holds this information as part of an earlier deal.

ByteDance will not have access to information on TikTok’s US users and will also lose control over the app’s algorithm, according to White House officials.

The new details come as Trump prepares to meet China’s President Xi Jinping next month in South Korea on the margins of Apec, as both sides continue negotiations to resolve their trade war.

Trump said on Friday he and Xi had approved a deal that would enable TikTok to continue operating in the US. It came after Congress passed a law last year mandating a forced divestiture by ByteDance. Lawmakers threatened a nationwide ban if a deal could not be approved.

Trump has repeatedly extended a congressional deadline for a divestiture by ByteDance, most recently delaying a nationwide ban on the app for the fourth time, until December 16.

TikTok had been developing a standalone US app in anticipation of a deal to ensure that content generated by American users would still be available in other countries, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Under the terms of the anticipated deal, existing US investors, including General Atlantic and Susquehanna, are expected to retain a stake in the business. They will be joined by a consortium of new investors.

Recommended

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is expected to invest in TikTok through his media group Fox Corp, the owner of cable channel Fox News, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. Personal computer pioneer Michael Dell is also expected to invest.

Trump, in an interview with Fox News on Sunday, confirmed that Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle, will be part of the investor group that will raise a “tremendous amount of money” alongside other prominent individuals.

The US consortium will own 80 per cent of the business, while ByteDance’s stake is expected to dip below 20 per cent, as set out by Congress.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Sunday a deal to have TikTok’s US operations majority owned and controlled by American investors would be reached this week.

The White House negotiated for an independent TikTok board to be created, on which six of seven seats would be held by Americans, with ByteDance selecting the remaining director, Leavitt told Fox News.