US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday declaring that his plan to sell TikTok's US operations to American and global investors will address the national security requirements in a 2024 law.

The new US company will be valued at around US$14 billion, Vice President JD Vance said, putting a price tag on the popular short video app far below some analyst estimates.

Trump has delayed enforcement of the law that bans the app unless its Chinese owners sell it until December 16 amid efforts to extract TikTok's US assets from the global platform, line up American and other investors and win approval from the Chinese government.

The publication of the executive order shows Trump is making progress on the sale of TikTok's US assets, but numerous details need to be worked out, including who will own the new company's most important asset, its recommendation algorithm.

"There was some resistance on the Chinese side, but the fundamental thing that we wanted to accomplish is that we wanted to keep TikTok operating, but we also wanted to make sure that we protected Americans' data privacy as required by law," Vance told reporters at an Oval Office briefing.

Trump said, referring to President Xi Jinping: "I spoke with President Xi. We had a good talk, I told him what we were doing, and he said go ahead with it."

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. TikTok did not immediately comment on Trump's action.

Trump has credited TikTok, which has 170 million US users, with helping him win reelection last year and has 15 million followers on his personal account. The White House also launched an official TikTok account last month.

"This is going to be American-operated all the way," Trump said.

He added that Michael Dell, Rupert Murdoch and "probably four or five absolutely world-class investors" would be part of the deal.

The White House did not discuss how it came up with the US$14 billion valuation.

According to Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, TikTok was estimated to be worth US$30 billion to US$40 billion without the algorithm as of April 2025.

The agreement on TikTok’s US operations includes ByteDance appointing one of seven board members for the new entity, with Americans holding the other six seats, a senior White House official said on Saturday.

ByteDance would hold less than 20 percent in TikTok US to comply with requirements set out in the 2024 law that ordered it shut down by January 2025 if its US assets were not sold by ByteDance. (Reuters)