Oracle Emerges as Most Likely Partner for US TikTok Deal

A quick update on the TikTok U.S. saga: In what will be a surprise to absolutely no one, Oracle is firming as the favorite to establish a partnership deal that would enable TikTok to keep running in the U.S., according to latest reports.

As per The Information, Trump’s long-favored TikTok partner is now closing in on a deal that it hopes will satisfy all parties.

As per The Information:

“Oracle has emerged as a leading contender to help run TikTok as part of a deal President Donald Trump is orchestrating to satisfy last year’s divest-or-ban law, say investors, bankers and former executives familiar with the Chinese tech giant.”

Importantly, The Information’s report also notes that TikTok owner ByteDance is seemingly in favor of an Oracle partnership, after already working with Oracle on its Project Texas U.S. data separation project, as well as its algorithmic oversight initiative.

Oracle, you may recall, is who Trump previously tried to sell the U.S. operations of TikTok to back in 2020, after he initially sought to ban the app in order to punish China for the spread of COVID 19 (yes, that’s really the reason).

That deal was all but done, with TikTok even confirming the arrangement at the time:

But in 2021, after the inauguration of President Biden, the TikTok sell-off push was shelved, due to concerns around how the initiative was managed.  

U.S. security officials continued to raise concerns about the app, and that eventually led to the implementation of a law last year that will now force TikTok into U.S. ownership, or be banned in the region.

And with that law already in place before Trump took office, he must now facilitate a deal to meet the requirements of those new regulations in order to keep the app available to U.S. users.

Which he’s keen to do, because now he’s “a big star” in the app.

In some ways, Oracle makes the most sense as business partner for the app, given its previous connection, while Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is also a personal friend of Donald Trump, which seemingly gives him an “in” in this respect.

Indeed, Ellison was also present at the White House recently, when Trump announced the new “Project Stargate” AI initiative, for which Oracle will play a part in the construction of new AI infrastructure in the nation.   

So, really, it’s seemed likely that Oracle would be the preferred partner for the app from the start, though last week, Trump claimed that there were four bids on the table for the U.S. operations of TikTok, and all of them were good.

The question now is whether the Chinese government will allow the sell off of TikTok’s U.S. operations, and the conditions upon which they’re approve such. CCP officials have been firm in their opposition to a full sell-off, declaring that the algorithms and systematic elements of the app will not be made available to a U.S. partner under any circumstances.

Can Trump and Co. arrange a deal that will appease all parties, and ensure that TikTok remains the same for American users?

It seems that we’re close to finding out, with the current deadline for an announcement on the deal being early next month.