President Trump officially signed an executive order on Thursday, clearing a critical path for a consortium of investors to take control of an American version of TikTok. This move aims to separate the popular video app from its current Chinese parent company, ByteDance, allowing it to continue operations within the United States.
For months, the administration has been actively seeking non-Chinese investors for this U.S.-based TikTok entity, which Vice President JD Vance announced would be valued at a substantial $14 billion.
The primary objective of this intricate deal is to ensure TikTok’s compliance with a federal law implemented in January, which initially banned the app in the U.S. This ban stemmed from serious concerns that Beijing could exploit the platform to access sensitive American user data or disseminate propaganda. Despite the ban, Mr. Trump has repeatedly postponed its enforcement. The recent executive order grants negotiators until mid-January to finalize all aspects of the agreement.
“This deal signifies that Americans can now use TikTok with significantly greater confidence than ever before,” stated Vice President Vance. “Their data will be secure, and the app will not be weaponized for propaganda against our citizens.”
Mr. Trump emphasized on Thursday that the new TikTok investors would primarily be “American investors, American companies, great ones, great investors.”
However, sources close to the negotiations reveal that an Emirati investment firm is poised to join this coalition. This firm, MGX, is expected to stand alongside established U.S. companies such as tech titan Oracle and investment powerhouse Silver Lake. Adding to the high-profile participants, Mr. Trump also mentioned media mogul Rupert Murdoch and technology executive Michael Dell as involved investors.
MGX did not immediately respond to inquiries for comment, while Fox Corporation and Mr. Dell’s investment firm, BDT & MSD Partners, chose to decline comment.
The MGX investment represents the latest instance of Emirati financial influence supporting the Trump administration. In recent months, representatives from the Gulf State have committed a staggering $1.4 trillion for investment in the U.S. economy over the next decade. Notably, MGX previously announced a $2 billion deposit into a cryptocurrency startup founded by the Trump family.
These ongoing TikTok discussions and the MGX crypto investment coincided with the Emiratis’ efforts to acquire advanced artificial intelligence chips. The Biden administration had previously restricted the Gulf State’s access to these chips due to concerns about its connections to China. However, the Emiratis actively lobbied the Trump administration to alter U.S. policy, driven by their ambition to establish vast data centers and emerge as a global AI leader.
During Mr. Trump’s visit to Abu Dhabi in May, his administration agreed to a substantial deal: selling the Emiratis 500,000 AI chips. These chips are destined for a data center campus in the Emirates, projected to be one of the largest worldwide.
Intriguingly, MGX, a key player in the TikTok investment discussions, was not the only entity in the deal poised to gain from the Emirates’ burgeoning data center initiative. Oracle, a cloud computing giant and TikTok investor, is slated to construct a data center in the Emirates estimated to cost around $20 billion. Similarly, Silver Lake, another investment firm involved with TikTok, holds a stake in G42, an Emirati AI company that is a partner in this massive project.
While there is no direct evidence suggesting the chip deal was contingent upon other transactions, two Democratic senators have formally requested investigations by the inspectors general at the Commerce and State Departments. They aim to determine whether Trump administration officials breached ethical guidelines in these multibillion-dollar deals involving the Emiratis.
Previously, Mr. Trump indicated that China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, had approved the basic framework for a TikTok agreement. While a statement from a Chinese state-run news agency on the call was less explicit, Mr. Xi did appear to signal support for a commercial resolution to the TikTok situation.