Trump TikTok deal: Oracle, Fox, and other potential investors

Years of uncertainty about a possible TIKTOK ban in the United States could finally come to an end.

The Trump government is supposedly very close to Completion of a contract with China Transfer of the app's US operations to American control. Details are still cloudy, but at the moment it looks like the social media giant, which has around 170 million American users, is operated by a consortium by rich, right-wing investors, in particular by the tech company Oracle and the FOX Corporation, the FOX News.

If – and it is still one If -This deal has been completed, he would mark the end of a five-year-comic presence for Tikkoks. President Donald Trump tried to ban the app Concerns regarding Chinese property During his first term without success. The congress finally acted in 2024 and passed a law according to which Tikok had to be sold or closed to American operators. But when Trump returned to office, he had a change in the heart – young voters moved towards Trump in 2024, and his campaign attributed part of her success to his presence on the platform. Since then Trump has a number of (signed (possibly illegal) Executive regulations that delay the implementation of the ban.

Today, explained Co-moderator Noel King spoke along Amrith Ramkumar Amrith Ramkumar Wall Street Journal About this background story, what a US version of Tikkok could look like, and the reserved billionaire who brings the keys to the app.

Below is an extract of your conversation, which was processed for length and clarity. The full podcast gives much more, so listen Today, explained Wherever you get podcasts, including Apple podcastsPresent PandoraAnd Spotify.

We see a heading that indicates that America will get Tiktok. What exactly will get America?

The biggest is that the app continues to work in the United States. You will continue to use it. So that is step number one, I think, and the administration is very focused on the fact that they are those who prevented the app from becoming dark and all changes there.

However, if you dig a little deeper, it is also very important that a group of US investors now get control of Tikok's US operations. This is something that many people in Washington have been pushing in Washington for over five years, and it seems as if they were on the doorstep that they would happen.

What about what Tikok Tiktok does, what is the algorithm? Do the United States get that too?

That is the ten billion dollar question. Essentially, the answer would be, based on what the administration and the people near Tiktok said. There would be a complex way to do this if Bytedance, the Chinese parent company of Tikkok, would copy the algorithm that it uses globally [US] Entity that is created by this transaction. The new entity would then check it and they would do it. It would be a US-specific algorithm.

President Trump says that later this week he will sign an executive order about it. What is in the business? What do we know?

The deal is not complete. This is the first thing that is to be understood. It is a preliminary agreement, a kind of framework. This executive regulation that the President will sign will basically say how we can say that we have the contours of the deal and meet the law and the national security conditions. This is a step in completing things.

Basically, US investors and allies will essentially take control of this new company that was created to operate Tikok in the United States. The understanding is that this new group of US investors, this consortium, which contains the private equity company Silver Lake and Cloud Computing Company Oracle, would be part of this group and have about half of this new unit. Existing byteace investors, which include some Trump allies, would have around 30 percent. That is what makes the ownership of Bytedance fall just below the 20 percent described in the law. And it is also important to note that this consortium has changed from day to day.

Trump mentioned the Murdochs on the weekend. He said Lachlan [Murdoch] could be involved.

Yes. And we are said that FOX would basically invest. He mentioned Michael Dell, who was also reported about it. He could be involved. But Trump loves this element, right? Because now he has this framework agreement and the investors call: We want to be part of this business because we know that this is a very valuable company and a lucrative opportunity. And so he can now choose who he lets in.

So Oracle has a significant share. Others may join, others may get out, but Oracle is a real player here, and we cannot talk about Oracle without talking about Larry Ellison. Who is Larry Ellison?

How much time do you have? Larry Ellison is one of the richest men in the world. He Co -founded Oracle. Start there. Oracle is one of the most important technology companies that most normal people have never heard of. They are experts in working with large databases that are of crucial importance for the social media industry. It is now even more important that Oracle is now considered one of the leading AI companies because they carry out AI infrastructure and work with companies such as Openaai.

But Larry Ellison has also expanded in other ways. His family is now preparing an offer for Warner Bros. through their company Paramount Skydance. He has a lot of money. He is pretty strategic with what he does with it. But yes, this Tikok deal would be his most recent great victory.

This made many people pretty suspicious. They have a wealthy old man, many wealthy old men who are involved in this consortium, which is largely aligned and controlled TikTok. Will you be able to manipulate the algorithm? Are you those who decide what I see on Tikkok?

This is another really good question and something that has not yet been fully addressed. I think the priority shows that you can carry out the app. You still have to prove the basic business case, justification for a deal worth many billion dollars.

It is not in your financial interest to make a few changes that revise things. These people only want this deal. Tikkok only wants to operate in the USA and users only want experience to stay the same. Make changes or do things that would be very annoying, seems to be against their own interests.