President Trump has nominated Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch and tech billionaires Larry Ellison and Michael Dell as the key US investors in a proposed deal to keep the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok operating in the United States.

Speaking on the Murdoch-owned Fox News’ “The Sunday Briefing” program, Mr Trump said that the United States and China have made progress on a deal requiring TikTok’s American assets to be transferred to US owners from China’s ByteDance.

“I hate to tell you this, but a man named Lachlan is involved, Lachan is, that’s a very unusual name, Lachlan Murdoch,” Mr Trump said.

“And Rupert is probably going to be in the group. I think they’re going to be in the group.”

The proposed investors would give Trump allies in corporate America influence over a widely popular social media app, which counts 170 million U.S. users and helps shape public discourse on politics and culture.

Mr Trump praised his group of preferred investors, calling them prominent people and “American patriots.”

“You know they love this country, I think they’re going to do a really good job,” Mr Trump said.

Mr Trump also said he was “a little prejudiced” about Tik Tok crediting the app with helping build his support among young voters in the 2024 presidential election.

Under the expected deal, TikTok’s U.S. assets would be majority-owned by American investors and operated in the United States by a board of directors with national security and cybersecurity credentials.

ByteDance’s current shareholders include Susquehanna International Group, General Atlantic, and KKR.

ByteDance would hold less than 20% of the stock of a joint venture controlling TikTok’s U.S. operations, according to a Reuters’ report.

Any investment in TikTok U.S. would come through Fox Corp, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The Murdochs would not invest as individuals, nor would News Corp, parent company of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, the Reuters’ sources said.

Mr Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle a major Republican donor and recently the held the titular title as the “world’s richest person”, has long been linked to a potential TikTok deal.

Michael Dell is the CEO of Dell Technologies.

The Trump administration has declined to enforce a 2024 U.S. law enacted during the Biden administration requiring TikTok’s divestiture by January 2025 over fears its US user data could be accessed by the Chinese government.

Mr Trump has included negotiations over the app as part of wide-ranging economic talks with China.

The Trump administration has made a series of unusual interventions in US business, including taking a 10% stake in Intel and allowing AI chip giant Nvidia to sell its H20 chips to China in exchange for receiving 15% of those sales.

With Reuters