The Trump administration is set to receive $10bn from investors who took control of TikTok's US operations from ByteDance, its Chinese parent company, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the arrangement.
The payment is structured as a transaction fee for the government's role in brokering the deal to create a US-controlled version of the platform. Investors agreed to make several multibillion-dollar payments to the government as part of the arrangement, according to the Journal.
Oracle, which emerged as a key participant in the restructured TikTok entity, holds a stake valued at just over $2bn, according to a securities filing reported by CNBC.
The fee arrangement is highly unusual. Governments rarely take direct financial consideration for facilitating private-sector transactions, and the structure raises questions about how the proceeds will be treated under US budget and appropriations rules.
TikTok's US future had been thrown into uncertainty after Congress passed legislation requiring ByteDance to divest its American operations or face a ban, citing national security concerns. The Trump administration subsequently negotiated the terms under which a new investor group would assume control, shielding the platform from being shut down.
