President Donald Trump has named Lachlan Murdoch, Larry Ellison and Michael Dell as key US investors in a new structure to ensure TikTok continues to operate in the US.
This choice signals an attempt to resolve the regulatory impasse by involving personalities from the media and technology world who are closely associated with the Republican Party.
Under the proposed arrangement, TikTok’s US assets will be spun off from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, and transferred to a new entity. US investors will take a majority stake in this new company.
ByteDance’s shareholding is to be limited to less than 20%. Operations would be overseen by a board of directors with US national security and cybersecurity certifications.
The structure is designed to address concerns about the data security of the app’s 170 million US users. At the same time, it maintains the continuity of the platform, which Trump himself has credited with helping to build his support among young voters ahead of the 2024 election.
Potential investors included Lachlan Murdoch, chairman of Fox Corp, Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle and a major donor to the Republican Party, and Michael Dell, founder of Dell Technologies.
Murdoch’s involvement would come through Fox Corp, rather than as a private investment. The Murdoch family, which controls a media empire with a conservative profile, would thus gain influence over one of the most important social media platforms shaping public discourse.
Ellison has previously been linked to attempts to take over TikTok, making his presence here a natural continuation of previous efforts.
The decision to create a new ownership structure is a twist on previous policy. The Trump administration has abandoned enforcement of the 2024 law, passed during the Biden administration, which mandated that ByteDance sell TikTok by January 2025.
Instead, Trump has integrated the app negotiations into broader economic talks with China.
This approach is part of a wider trend of government intervention in corporate operations, such as taking a stake in Intel or requiring Nvidia to share revenue from chip sales to China.
Critics, including some business leaders, see these measures as a departure from the principles of American capitalism that could negatively affect the competitiveness of the economy. For the administration, however, it is a way to advance the country’s strategic interests.
