US President Donald Trump signed an executive order (EO) aimed at making it easier for investors to acquire the US operations of TikTok.

The order comes as a coalition of investors led by Oracle, which is the current cloud provider for the social media platform.

The US government has mandated that TikTok's US operations be sold or shut down, with an initial deadline of this January. While it is not entirely clear that he has legal authority to do so, Trump has repeatedly pushed that deadline back.

Last week, he issued a separate executive order moving TikTok's US ban date to mid-December to allow the deal to be finalized.

The newer EO shifts it to January 2026 and looks to develop a framework to allow for investors to take over the business, with Chinese owner ByteDance set to own less than 20 percent of the business.

Should the deal go ahead, Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX are expected to own 45 percent of TikTok USA. Other reported investors include media baron Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch, through Fox Corporation, and Dell's Michael Dell.

Billionaire Republican megadonor Jeff Yass currently owns a stake in ByteDance through his trading firm Susquehanna and is expected to maintain a stake in the new entity. Yass also owns a position in Trump Media & Technology Group Corp, the President's company that includes Truth Social.

General Atlantic and KKR will also keep their existing stakes.

Oracle, founded by Trump-backer Larry Ellison, has partnered with MGX and Silver Lake on other high-profile projects. Both Oracle and MGX are funding OpenAI's US data center effort, Stargate.

In the UAE, Oracle has teamed up with G42 for a local Stargate data center worth tens of billions and pitched to grow to 5GW. G42, which counts Silver Lake as an investor, was cofounded by MGX and shares the same chairman, Emirati national security advisor Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

MGX in May said that it had deposited $2 billion in a cryptocurrency start-up founded by the Trump family, World Liberty Financial.

Should the companies team up for the TikTok acquisition, Vice President JD Vance said that it would value the business at just $14bn - far below industry estimates. With more than 170 million active users in the country, it currently generates revenues of over $10bn per year.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that the Chinese government “respects the wishes of the company and is pleased to see the company conduct commercial negotiations and reach a solution that complies with Chinese laws and regulations and balances interests, all while adhering to market rules.”

Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said: “China hopes the US will provide an open, fair, and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese companies investing in the United States."