The drama surrounding TikTok and whether or not it should proceed to be obtainable within the U.S. is unprecedented within the tech world.
At subject is how a foreign-owned client app is being successfully compelled by U.S. legislation to restructure possession and hand operational management to an American firm whereas retaining entry to its large consumer base.
Not like typical knowledge privateness or antitrust instances, this deal requires retraining TikTok’s algorithm with U.S. knowledge and ongoing oversight, giving a personal firm and the U.S. authorities unprecedented affect over content material suggestions.
Mixed with the app’s cultural attain — over 170 million U.S. customers and billions in advert income — the deal uniquely intersects nationwide safety, geopolitics, and client know-how, setting a possible blueprint for the way the U.S. might deal with different international apps sooner or later.
We might lastly have a solution as to what’s subsequent for TikTok, the social media behemoth.
It seems that Oracle (ORCL) has landed some of the high-profile contracts on the earth. The California-based tech big will safe and host TikTok’s U.S. operations beneath a deal backed by the Trump administration. The association might reposition Oracle as a trusted U.S. authorities safety companion if it’s profitable.
If Oracle stumbles, the corporate dangers being blamed for breaking an app used day by day by all these TikTok-obsessed People.
The Trump administration is backing a deal between Oracle and TikTok.
Getty/TS
A deal constructed on safety
The settlement, as reported by Bloomberg and Politico, is designed to adjust to the Defending People from Overseas Adversary Managed Functions Act (PAFACA). The PAFACA legislation requires TikTok’s Chinese language mum or dad, ByteDance, to divest management or exit the U.S. market.
Beneath the plan, American traders would maintain roughly 80% of a newly created U.S. entity, with ByteDance retaining lower than 20% and a single board seat. That seat can be excluded from the safety committee overseeing operations.
U.S.-based Oracle’s function is central.
Associated: Cathie Wooden buys $28.6 million of surging tech shares
Oracle will host U.S. consumer knowledge, handle safety, and oversee TikTok’s advice algorithm. The algorithm can be licensed from China’s ByteDance, however will probably be retrained completely on American knowledge. The end result can be a form of firewall between the U.S. operation and its Chinese language mum or dad.
Critics of the deal fear it might consolidate an excessive amount of energy within the arms of some billionaires, and others are involved that the deal is “Giving the government more power to surveil its own people or to do large data collections is not a good thing,” says David Kennedy, a cybersecurity professional and the founding father of TrustedSec and Binary Protection, informed Time. “We’re just basically switching one government for another.”
Oracle Earnings
In its most up-to-date earnings report, September 9, 2025, Oracle introduced:
- Q1 FY 2026 complete income: $14.9 billion, up ~12% YoY.
- Cloud enterprise (IaaS + SaaS): $7.2 billion, up ~28% YoY; infrastructure alone $3.3 billion, up ~55%.
- Remaining Efficiency Obligations (future contracted income backlog): $455 billion, up 359% YoY.
TikTok monetary scale
- U.S. internet advert income 2024: $11.01 billion, based on Demand Sage.
- Forecast U.S. advert spend 2025: $11.8 billion, up ~21% YoY, based on Foundation.
- International income 2024: ~$23 billion, ~77% from promoting, based on Enterprise of Apps.
Key timeline for the TikTok-Oracle deal
- April 2024: PAFACA handed; TikTok should divest or exit the U.S.
- January 19, 2025: Divestiture deadline; ByteDance challenged the legislation.
- Early 2025: Supreme Courtroom upholds PAFACA in TikTok, Inc. v. Garland.
- September 19, 2025: Trump and Chinese language officers sign assist for a negotiated answer.
- September 20, 2025: Politico experiences White Home confirms U.S. management over TikTok’s algorithm.
- September 22, 2025: Particulars emerge of Oracle-backed retraining plan and board construction.
- Fall 2025 (anticipated): Govt order to finalize the deal, giving a 120-day transition interval.
Oracle’s second within the highlight
For Oracle, it is a make-or-break alternative. Whereas it has lagged behind AWS and Azure in cloud computing, TikTok’s U.S. operations would place Oracle on the heart of one of many world’s most seen tech and safety assignments.
Whether it is executed easily, the deal would bolster Oracle’s credibility as a security-first cloud supplier. Glitches, nevertheless, might hurt its popularity within the enterprise and authorities sectors.
Associated: OpenAI faces one other scathing lawsuit from a strong rival
Oracle additionally faces technical and political challenges. Retraining TikTok’s algorithm from scratch dangers altering content material discovery, engagement, and advert efficiency. On the identical time, lawmakers will intently watch to make sure ByteDance’s affect is sufficiently curtailed.
Oracle’s function in TikTok is each a contract and a check of the corporate’s means to execute at scale beneath world scrutiny. Success might redefine Oracle’s place in cloud and cybersecurity markets; failure might injury its popularity whereas threatening TikTok’s U.S. presence.
Larry Ellison shared a tackle our collective surveillance period at an Oracle assembly in 2024 that ought to elevate some eyebrows within the context of this deal, based on reporting on AOL.
We stay in a world through which ‘we’re continuously recording,’ inflicting police and residents to ‘be on their finest conduct’ ~ Oracle founder Larry Ellison.
Associated: Jaguar cyberattack restoration sophisticated by a serious oversight
