The White House says TikTok will be sold to a U.S. joint venture - San Jose Spotlight

"The deal will move TikTok's ownership to a U.S. joint venture compliant with a 2024 law forcing ByteDance, Tiktok's corporate owner, to sell the app or else face a ban in the U.S., a senior White House official said on a call with reporters, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The official said the divestiture deal is on its way to be finalized and has been approved by the Chinese government."

"So far, the only confirmed member of the U.S. joint venture is Oracle, whose co-founder Larry Ellison is a close ally of President Donald Trump. The U.S. company, which currently stores TikTok's data on its servers, will be in charge of the underlying infrastructure of the app, including the algorithm and source code, the senior White House official said. Other investors are yet to be confirmed but will include American companies and global investors who already own stakes in ByteDance, the official said."

"Trump is looking for other investors who are "patriotic" and "love America" to be part of this venture, the official said. The official said they expect the deal to be worth "many billions of dollars" once TikTok's sale value is fully assessed. But there are still some regulatory hurdles ahead. China has to issue an export license to allow the deal to go through, and the deal still needs to go through regulatory and antitrust reviews in the U.S."

The U.S. is close to a sale agreement that will move TikTok ownership to a U.S. joint venture to comply with a 2024 law requiring ByteDance to divest or face a ban. The deal will reduce ByteDance's ownership to less than 20% and has received Chinese government approval, with a framework agreement expected this year. Oracle is the only confirmed U.S. partner and will control infrastructure, algorithm and source code; other American and global investors are expected to join. The U.S. government will not hold a direct stake. The transaction could be worth many billions but still needs a China export license and U.S. regulatory and antitrust reviews; an executive order will extend a pause on enforcement.

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