From the Liveblog of
Friday, September 26, 2025
Trump declares TikTok sale ready and values it at $14 billion, far below analysts’ estimates
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US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order declaring that his plan to sell Chinese-owned TikTok’s US operations to US and global investors will address the national security requirements in a 2024 law.
He also delays, until January 20, enforcement of the law that bans the app unless its Chinese owners sell it.
The new US company will be valued at around $14 billion, Vice President JD Vance said, putting a price tag on the popular short video app far below some analyst estimates.
TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, currently values itself at more than $330 billion, according to its new employee share buyback plan. TikTok contributes a small percentage of the company’s total revenue.
According to Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, TikTok was estimated to be worth $30 billion to $40 billion without its algorithm as of April 2025.
Trump’s order says the algorithm will be retrained and monitored by the US company’s security partners, and the operation of the algorithm will be under the control of the new joint venture.
Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping had indicated approval of the plans. “I spoke with President Xi,” Trump said. “We had a good talk, I told him what we were doing and he said go ahead with it.”
“This is going to be American-operated all the way,” Trump says.
Chinese media paint a different picture of the TikTok agreement, suggesting ByteDance will continue to play a major or operational role.
The Times of Israel Community.