Trump Set to Seize TikTok Deal: Will US Titans Like Murdoch And Oracle Take Charge?

US President Donald Trump is preparing to sign an executive order that could hand control of TikTok's US operations to a consortium of American investors, a manoeuvre that would reshape who controls one of the world's most powerful attention engines.

The move, announced this week as negotiations with Beijing edge toward a framework, will declare a proposed divestiture as a 'qualified' solution to a 2024 law that otherwise threatened an app ban.

The administration says the deal places algorithmic control and user data under US supervision, while the President has publicly named potential participants, including Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, Oracle's Larry Ellison and Michael Dell. If it proceeds, the agreement would convert a geopolitical fight over data and influence into a private-sector ownership battle with profound political and regulatory implications.

White House: A US Algorithm, A Majority American Board

The White House has presented the arrangement as a national-security solution: the US version of TikTok would be overseen by a board dominated by American appointees, and the recommendation engine would be operated from the United States.

Officials told reporters the administration expects to sign an executive order to approve the deal and to extend the enforcement pause on the divest-or-ban statute so negotiators can finalise technical details.

Administration briefings say the new US entity would be governed by a seven-member board with six American seats and one ByteDance nominee — a compromise intended to satisfy Congress's bipartisan security concerns while keeping the platform accessible to US users.

Officials emphasised that measures will be put in place to prevent China's authorities from accessing US user data.

Who Might Own and Run It — Murdoch, Ellison and Dell?

Trump named specific players during a weekend interview aired on Fox: 'I think they're going to be in the group', he told the host when asked about the Murdochs. The President explicitly cited Larry Ellison and Michael Dell as likely participants, a revelation that reframes a regulatory negotiation as a potential concentration of media and tech influence.

Multiple reporting strands suggest a consortium led by Oracle and private-equity investors would control a commanding share of the US operation. Oracle, Silver Lake and other investors could together control roughly 80% of the US unit, with ByteDance retaining a minority stake. Those figures remain subject to final sign-offs and legal vetting in both Washington and Beijing.

Oracle's relationship with TikTok is not new: in 2020, Oracle was selected as a 'secure cloud provider' for portions of TikTok's operations, and the company has longstanding cloud and security capabilities that Washington now says make it a natural custodian for US user data.

But the prospect of media titans and proprietors of major news outlets taking stakes in a mass-market social platform has prompted immediate worries about editorial influence and market concentration.

Legal, Technical and Democratic Stakes

The legal scaffolding for this outcome is the divest-or-ban statute enacted in 2024 and the administration's subsequent executive orders pausing enforcement to allow a deal to be struck. The White House's most recent order extended that pause until mid-December, giving negotiators a firm deadline to iron out cross-border, ownership and algorithmic questions.

The administration frames the executive order it expects to sign as the final quality check that the proposed structure meets the statutory test.

Civil-liberties and tech-policy groups have been quick to flag trade-offs. The Electronic Frontier Foundation warned that moving algorithmic control to US hands might swap one set of geopolitical manipulations for another, stressing that 'retraining' or otherwise redesigning recommendation systems raises questions about transparency, oversight and the potential for political influence.

Practically, the process will require three things: an explicit executive order or White House declaration that the deal satisfies the law; public confirmations from the investor group and ByteDance that terms are accepted and legally approved; and technical proof that algorithmic control and user data storage are separated and auditable. Until those boxes are ticked, the framework remains a high-stakes outline rather than a completed transaction.