Tiktok US ownership deal: Donald Trump says Larry Ellison, Lachlan Murdoch, Michael Dell involved — what we know

United States President Donald Trump on September 21 announced that the deal to keep TikTok operating in the country would see involvement from tech billionaires Larry Ellison and Michael Dell, and media owner Lachlan Murdorch, as investors, as per a Reuters report.

According to Donald Trump, US and China have progressed on a deal that allows TikTok parent ByteDance to sell its American unit to US owners as per government requirement.

It noted that with names such as Ellison, Dell and Murdoch making the list, Donald Trump's corporate friends are set to win big if the proposed deal goes through. TikTok in the US has over 170 million users who are active in political and cultural discussions.

US-TikTok deal: ‘American patriots going to do a good job’, says Trump

Under the expected deal, TikTok's US assets would be majority-owned by American investors and operated in the United States by a board of directors with national security and cybersecurity credentials, Reuters reported on September 20, citing a White House official.

ByteDance's current shareholders include Susquehanna International Group, General Atlantic, and KKR. ByteDance would hold less than 20 per cent of the stock of a joint venture controlling TikTok's US operations, the official added.

Donald Trump praised the group in an interview with Fox News' “The Sunday Briefing” program, calling them prominent people and “American patriots”. “I think they're going to do a really good job,” Trump said, crediting TikTok with helping build his support among young voters in the 2024 presidential election.

Dell, Ellison and Murdoch: Who are they?

• Lachlan Murdoch is the CEO of Fox Corp, recently cemented long-term control of his family's media empire that includes Fox News and the Wall Street Journal after settling a years-long legal battle with his siblings. The family patriarch, 94-year-old Rupert Murdoch, may also be involved in the deal, Trump said.

Any investment in TikTok US would come through Fox Corp, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The Murdochs would not invest as individuals, nor would News Corp, parent company of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, these sources said.

Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch are known for their conservative views and their news outlets attract right-leaning audiences, but they have occasionally drawn Donald Trump's ire, the report noted.

It added that Donald Trump sued the Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch for defamation over a July report that said Trump signed a 2003 birthday greeting for late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that included a sexually suggestive drawing and a reference to shared secrets. The newspaper has defended its reporting and vowed to fight the lawsuit.

• Larry Ellison is the co-founder of Oracle and a major Republican donor, has long been linked to a potential TikTok deal.
• Michael Dell is the CEO of Dell Technologies. Dell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

‘Trump administration making ‘unusual’ interventions in businesses’

The Trump administration has declined to enforce a 2024 US law enacted during the Joe Biden administration requiring TikTok's divestiture by January 2025 over fears its US user data could be accessed by the Chinese government. Donald Trump has included negotiations over the app as part of wide-ranging economic talks with China.

The Trump administration has made a series of unusual interventions in US business, including taking a 10 per cent stake in Intel Corp and allowing AI chip giant Nvidia to sell its H20 chips to China in exchange for receiving 15 per cent of those sales.

Donald Trump has defended those moves as benefiting US interests. Critics, including some business leaders and Republican lawmakers, have called the interventions a stark departure from the norms of American capitalism and said they risk hurting the competitiveness of the US economy, as per the report.

(With inputs from Reuters)