Donald Trump on Monday said that a newly created US sovereign wealth fund could play a part in his attempt to rescue TikTok from a US ban.
The president had previously floated the idea of the US taking a 50% stake in the social media platform as part of any deal negotiated with TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance, which has to divest itself of TikTok for it to escape a US ban.
On his second day in office Trump told reporters that “what I’m thinking about saying to somebody is, buy it, and give half to the United States of America. Half, and we’ll give you the permit. And they’ll have a great partner, the United States.”
Today, as he signed an executive order directing the US Treasury and Commerce departments to launch a new sovereign wealth fund, he said of TikTok that “we might put that in the sovereign wealth fund, whatever we make or we do a partnership with very wealthy people, a lot of options,” according to a report from the Associated Press.
“We have a lot of other things that we could put in the fund,” he added.
President Trump issued a separate executive order on Jan. 20 that temporarily shielded TikTok from the US ban.
That order — which experts have said is legally dubious — opened a 75-day window for the Trump administration “to determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way” for TikTok’s US business after a new law effectively banning the app took effect the day before Trump took office.
Trump’s order gave ByteDance until April 4 to comply with the law. However, Trump has said he would decide TikTok’s fate in February.
Other prospective TikTok buyers floated so far by Trump include Elon Musk, owner of X; Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle (ORCL); and Microsoft (MSFT). It’s not yet clear if any are involved in actual discussions.
Microsoft, along with Walmart (WMT), made a failed bid for TikTok during Trump’s first term when Trump actually tried to ban the app.
When asked last week if Microsoft was among the companies interested this time around in an ownership stake, Trump answered in the affirmative: “I would say yes.”
“I’d like Larry to buy it too,” the president said about Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison during a press conference during his first week in office, during which Trump announced a new $500 billion artificial intelligence infrastructure commitment.
NPR later reported that the Trump administration was developing a plan that would move control of TikTok to Oracle, where Ellison is chair and chief technology officer, along with other outside investors.
In that scenario, ByteDance would keep a minority stake in the company while Oracle would oversee the app’s algorithm and data collection. Oracle already acts as a service provider for TikTok, storing its videos and other content in data centers.
But Trump denied talks with Oracle when asked about the subject on Jan. 26.
“No, not with Oracle. Numerous people are talking to me, very substantial people, about buying it and I will make that decision probably over the next 30 days.”
He also denied any actual discussions with Ellison, saying “I never spoke to Larry about TikTok.”
According to reports by Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, government officials in China have also discussed selling the social media app’s US business to Tesla CEO, SpaceX founder, and X owner, Elon Musk.
“I like bidding wars because you make your best deals,” Trump said last week as he spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One.
Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on X @alexiskweed.
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