White House reviewing TikTok proposal to lease algorithm from China

The Trump administration is considering a deal to potentially resolve TikTok’s legal uncertainty that involves leasing the app’s algorithm from Beijing-based owner ByteDance, according to a person directly involved in the talks who is not authorized to speak publicly.

Under the plan, a new U.S. entity would be created led by software giant Oracle. ByteDance is expected to retain a minority stake.

The algorithm leasing proposal has been controversial in the White House, according to the source. There is debate among China hawks about whether the plan truly removes ByteDance from having operational control of the app. But the move could circumvent the need for China to approve the deal at a moment when the Trump administration has announced a 34% tariff on Chinese goods.

Trump imposed a sell-by date of Saturday for the hugely popular video service.

Ahead of the deadline, a flurry of new bidders have shown interest, including one led by tech giant Amazon, but negotiators in the White House say the offer is not being taken seriously.

Oracle, which already provides TikTok with most of its backend technical support, would be tasked with supervising the new entity to ensure there are no backdoors for the Chinese government to access the data of millions of Americans. The person involved in the negotiations with TikTok said the safety of users’ personal data, rather than the algorithm, has been the dominant focus of the talks.

“I don’t think the algorithm is as scary to people in Washington as it used to be. The bigger concern is data security,” the person said last week, adding on Wednesday that, “it looks a whole lot like Project Texas 2.0.”

That is a reference to a plan that first took shape in Trump’s first term in which Austin-based Oracle was tapped to be a custodian of TikTok’s data, and would conduct regular audits of the app’s algorithm. The plan, which stalled out without ever receiving final approval during the Biden administration, included a “kill switch” that would allow U.S. officials to shut down the platform if national security benchmarks were not satisfied.

The new version of the Oracle-led arrangement involving leasing the algorithm, which was first reported by the Washington Post, does not include the kill switch option.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt would not comment on the Oracle plan, but told NPR in a statement that “if and when a TikTok deal is announced, it will come directly from President Trump.”

A deal would provide relief to TikTok in what has been a bumpy year. A federal law took effect in January that bans the viral video app nationwide unless it splits from Beijing tech giant ByteDance.

Congress passed the ban in 2024 with overwhelming bipartisan support over national security fears that an app used by more than half of Americans should not be controlled by China, a foreign adversary of the U.S. TikTok fought the ban all the way to the Supreme Court, calling it a violation of free speech rights — but the court upheld the law in early 2025.

Starting the evening of Jan. 18, just before the ban was planned to take effect, the app went dark for 14 hours. But it flickered back on the next day after Trump promised to sign an order delaying the ban once he was sworn into office.

On Inauguration Day, Trump signed an executive order pushing back the start of the ban by 75 days, and promising immunity for other tech companies that provide back end services for the app, such as Apple and Google, which host it in their appstores. That extension is set to expire on April 5.

Legal experts say Trump’s delays do not halt the ban, meaning it is still technically illegal for TikTok to operate in the U.S. with ties to China. Yet moves by Trump and his administration assuring TikTok and its service providers that U.S. authorities will not prosecute anyone under the law have been enough for the popular app to stay online, despite operating in violation of a federal statute.

Since January, Trump has said there has been “tremendous interest” from potential buyers of TikTok, an app used by more than 170 million Americans and a valuable asset for anyone who might want to influence a whole generation of young internet users who flock to the service every day.

NPR reported in January that cloud computing company Oracle has been tapped by the White House as a top contender to lead a coalition of other investors to acquire a sizable stake in TikTok’s U.S. operation.

Oracle is run by Larry Ellison, a billionaire Republican donor who has long been a close ally of Trump.