Trump approves TikTok sale in executive order, valued at $14 billion

US President Donald Trump has approved the proposed TikTok sale through an executive order, aiming to transfer the operations and ownership to US investors.

According to Vice President JD Vance, the valuation of the new US company will be at around $14 billion.

As per Trump’s statement, he and China’s president Xi Jinping agreed on the proposed TikTok deal in which the popular short video will continue its operations specifically in the US, reducing its dependence on Chinese owner ByteDance.

“I spoke with President Xi and he said, ‘Go ahead with it. This is going to be American-operated all the way.” Trump said at a press conference.

According to the proposed agreement, US investors including Murdochs, Michael Dell, and Larry Ellison will oversee TikTok’s operations. The US-based companies will hold 80 percent stake in TikTok and 20 percent share will be transferred to Chinese investors and ByteDance.

According to White House officials, the new version of the app will be taken over by a 7-member board of directors, comprising cybersecurity and national security experts.

Vance told reporters at an Oval Office briefing, "There was some resistance on the Chinese side, but the fundamental thing that we wanted to accomplish is that we wanted to keep TikTok operating, but we also wanted to make sure that we protected Americans' data privacy as required by law.”

When it comes to TikTok’s algorithm, Chinese officials previously announced that China will retain the ownership of the algorithm.

On the contrary, Trump’s executive order will allow the US companies to control and monitor the algorithm. Moreover, the new venture will control the algorithm’s operations.

"This is going to be American-operated all the way," Trump said.