In a significant move on Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order designed to pave the way for a new, American-led version of TikTok. This new entity, completely separated from its current Chinese owner, ByteDance, aims to ensure the app can continue its operations across the United States.
For several months, the administration has been actively seeking non-Chinese investors to take over the U.S. operations of TikTok. Vice President JD Vance announced that this proposed American TikTok company is estimated to be valued at an impressive $14 billion.
This initiative directly addresses a federal law enacted in January that banned TikTok in the U.S. The ban stemmed from serious national security concerns, including fears that Beijing could exploit the app to access sensitive American user data or disseminate propaganda. Despite the ban, President Trump has repeatedly postponed its enforcement. The recent executive order extends the negotiation window, allowing stakeholders until mid-January to finalize this complex deal.
Vice President Vance expressed optimism about the agreement, stating, “This deal really does mean that Americans can use TikTok, but actually use it with more confidence than they had in the past. Their data is going to be secure and it’s not going to be used as a propaganda weapon against our fellow citizens.”
President Trump underscored the “American” nature of the prospective investors, describing them as “American investors, American companies, great ones, great investors.” However, discussions indicate that an Emirati investment firm is also expected to join the consortium backing the new American TikTok company.
Sources familiar with the negotiations reveal that this Emirati firm, MGX, is set to partner with prominent U.S.-based companies, including tech giant Oracle and investment firm Silver Lake. Furthermore, Mr. Trump confirmed the involvement of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and technology CEO Michael Dell as key investors.
Neither MGX nor Fox Corporation and Dell Technologies immediately offered comments regarding their participation.
The potential involvement of MGX highlights a growing trend: the Emiratis leveraging their substantial financial resources to support Mr. Trump’s initiatives. Recent months have seen representatives from the Gulf State commit to investing an astounding $1.4 trillion into the U.S. economy over the coming decade. Notably, MGX previously announced a $2 billion deposit into a cryptocurrency startup established by the Trump family.
These discussions surrounding TikTok, alongside the MGX cryptocurrency investment, unfolded while the Emiratis were actively pursuing the acquisition of advanced artificial intelligence chips. The Biden administration had previously restricted the Emiratis’ access to these crucial chips, citing concerns over the Gulf State’s connections to China. However, under the Trump administration, the Emiratis actively advocated for a change in U.S. policy, aiming to establish powerful data centers and emerge as a global leader in AI.
During President Trump’s visit to Abu Dhabi in May, his administration reached an agreement to sell the Emiratis 500,000 AI chips. These chips are intended for a data center campus in the UAE, projected to be one of the largest worldwide.
Interestingly, MGX, a firm involved in the long-running TikTok investment discussions, was not alone among the deal’s participants poised to gain from the Emirates’ ambitious data center project. Oracle, a cloud computing provider and a TikTok investor, is slated to construct a data center in the Emirates estimated to cost around $20 billion. Similarly, Silver Lake, another investment firm backing TikTok, holds a stake in G42, a prominent Emirati AI company that is a partner in the data center initiative.
While direct evidence linking the chip deal to other transactions remains unconfirmed, two Democratic senators have formally requested that inspectors general at both the Commerce and State Departments investigate whether Trump administration officials breached ethical guidelines in these multi-billion-dollar deals with the Emiratis.
President Trump has indicated that China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, has given his approval to the foundational framework of a deal. Although an official readout from a Chinese state news agency was less explicit, it suggested President Xi’s apparent support for a commercial resolution concerning TikTok’s future.