The Trump administration is set to receive a roughly $10 billion fee from investors in the recently completed deal to take control of TikTok’s U.S. business, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, in January finalized a deal to establish a majority American-owned joint venture to operate the short-video platform in the United States. The restructuring was designed to address U.S. national security concerns and avoid a potential ban of the app, which is used by more than 200 million Americans.
The new entity, called TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, will oversee the platform’s U.S. operations while implementing data privacy and cybersecurity protections intended to safeguard American user data and systems.
As part of the arrangement, investors backing the transaction agreed to pay about $10 billion to the U.S. government. The fee comes in addition to the capital already invested to establish the new U.S. company.
Investors in the deal include Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX, as well as other backers. The consortium reportedly paid about $2.5 billion to the U.S. Treasury at the time of the transaction and will make additional payments over time until the total reaches $10 billion.
Vice President JD Vance previously said the newly formed U.S. company would be valued at approximately $14 billion.
Administration officials have defended the payment, arguing it reflects the government’s role in negotiating the restructuring and in preserving TikTok’s U.S. operations while addressing lawmakers’ national security concerns related to the platform’s Chinese ownership.
The arrangement has also faced scrutiny. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi were sued by retail investors in two social media companies competing with TikTok. The lawsuit seeks to overturn the administration’s approval of ByteDance’s deal to form the majority American-owned joint venture.
The White House and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the reported fee.
