The Donald Trump administration could receive up to $10 billion from investors, who are taking over TikTok’s U.S. business from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
According to the Wall Street Journal‘s Friday report, citing people familiar with the matter, the Trump administration is poised to receive the money as a “transaction fee” for brokering the deal that creates a US-controlled version of TikTok.
The investors, including Oracle, MGX, and Silver Lake, among others, have already paid $2.5 billion to the U.S. treasury in January 2026 and will pay the rest until the total reaches $10 billion, as per The Guardian.
BREAKING: Trump administration set to receive $10 billion fee from investors for TikTok deal. pic.twitter.com/utduRrYpKH
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) March 14, 2026
According to a January 2026 report by The New York Times, Shou Chew, TikTok’s chief executive, said that the changes enable “our U.S. users to continue to discover, create and thrive as part of TikTok’s vibrant global community and experience.”
The outlet also reported that Oracle, MGX, and Silver Lake are set to own 15% each of TikTok’s U.S. business, with ByteDance keeping less than 20%.
Amid bipartisan concern that TikTok’s Chinese ownership could threaten U.S. security, the POTUS signed an executive order to approve the deal in September, as per the outlet.
”It’s owned by Americans, and very sophisticated Americans. This is going to be American operated all the way,” said Trump at the time.
The President has also said that the U.S. will get a “tremendous fee-plus – I call it a fee-plus – just for making the deal, and I don’t want to throw that out the window”.
Following the deal, the President took to his Truth Social platform, describing it as a “dramatic, final, and beautiful conclusion.”
”I am so happy to have helped in saving TikTok! I only hope that long into the future I will be remembered by those who use and love TikTok,” Trump wrote.
View this post on Instagram
Meanwhile, at the time, Vice President JD Vance revealed that the new U.S. company would be valued at around $14 billion.
”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,” Vance told reporters at an Oval Office briefing at the time.
According to Reuters September 2025 report, following the deal, Trump said that Chinese President Xi approved the move.
“I spoke with President Xi. We had a good talk, I told him what we were doing and he said go ahead with it,” said the POTUS at the time,” while China’s foreign ministry said that the government “respects the will of enterprises and welcomes them to conduct business negotiations on the basis of market rules to reach solutions that comply with Chinese laws and regulations and achieve a balance of interests.”
“We hope the U.S. will provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese companies investing in the United States,” added ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun in a press conference.
