Trump names Ellison, Dell, Murdochs in U.S. TikTok takeover team

Trump names Ellison, Dell, and the Murdochs in a plan to take control of TikTok’s U.S. algorithm, with Oracle steering data protections.

Trump on Sunday said a group of well-known tech and media figures, including Larry Ellison, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, and Michael Dell, will be part of the team set to take over TikTok’s algorithm as the social media platform’s U.S. operations change hands. He outlined the names and their roles during an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Briefing.”

“You know, they’re very well-known people. And Larry Ellison is one of them. He’s involved. He’s a great guy. Michael Dell is involved. I hate to tell you this, but a man named Lachlan is involved,” Trump said, referring to Lachlan Murdoch, the CEO of Fox Corp., which owns Fox News. He added that Rupert Murdoch “is probably going to be in the group.”

Talks involving the Murdochs could bring Fox Corp. into the investor consortium. However, Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch won’t invest as individuals. A role in the TikTok effort could support Fox Corp.’s push into digital media as parts of its business, including broadcast television, face pressure.

Dell, the chief executive of Dell Technologies, is among the business leaders named in the deal. Trump’s remarks mark a change from the investor slate earlier discussed for the TikTok deal. The administration had previously pointed to Ellison’s Oracle, along with Andreessen Horowitz and Silver Lake, as the key investors tied to the plan.

Trump said Friday that he had “a very productive call” with Chinese President Xi Jinping and that the conversation moved the TikTok talks forward. He described progress toward finalizing the deal but did not share further details on timing.

China’s ByteDance will get 1 of 7 board seats for TikTok’s U.S. operations, official says

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Saturday that the restructured TikTok entity will feature seven board members, and 6 of the board members will be American. That setup reflects the requirements of a Congress bill in April 2024 that called for a national ban on TikTok in the US unless 80% of the app’s assets were sold to investors in America.

Leavitt also said that privacy and data for U.S. users will be led by Oracle and that Oracle invest in the platform. Ellison’s company started hosting TikTok’s U.S. data in 2020, an arrangement that has been central to the government’s data security aims for the platform.

This week’s movement marked a rare step forward after months of talks between the United States and China aimed at easing friction over trade and technology, which has weighed on markets.

Trump said Friday that he and Xi moved forward towards agreement on TikTok during their call and planned to meet in person in six weeks, though Beijing’s public statements have not made clear how far the talks have advanced.

It is not yet clear whether the arrangement under discussion will satisfy Congress’s requirement for a complete separation under the 2024 law. Questions remain over how control of the algorithm will be handled and how the new board’s authority will be defined within the U.S. structure.

Trump has given TikTok a lot of credit for helping him win last year’s election. On his personal account, the president has over 15 million followers. Last month, the White House also created an account on TikTok, highlighting the platform’s reach even as officials push for changes in its ownership.

Under the agreement described by the White House official, all data on American users would be stored on U.S. cloud infrastructure run by Oracle. That matches the hosting setup that began in 2020 and would continue if the ownership plan goes ahead. Negotiators are racing against the mid-December pause and the January 2025 deadline set by law.

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