A new American sovereign wealth fund could acquire ownership in the popular social media app TikTok, President Donald Trump said Monday.
Trump signed an executive order that directed the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments to launch a government-owned investment fund. And the American sovereign fund could be used to take a stake in TikTok after Trump on Jan. 19 said he wanted to see a delay in a proposed U.S. ban on the ByteDance-owned app.
“TikTok — we’re going to be doing something, perhaps, with TikTok, and perhaps not, if we make the right deal we’ll do it, otherwise we won’t, but I have the right to do that. And we might put that in the sovereign wealth fund, whatever will make. Or if we do a partnership with very wealthy people. A lot of options, but we could put that as an example of the fund,” Trump told reporters during a White House executive order signing ceremony.
The popular social video app, which has around 170 million American users, briefly went dark in the U.S. just before a divestiture bill was set to became law on Jan. 19, a move that was forestalled by Trump as he called for time to find an American buyer.
He subsequently signed an executive order that delayed any sale of TikTok in the U.S. for 75 days as talks on finding an American buyer continued.
A sovereign wealth fund, of which there are about 50 worldwide according to the UK-based International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds, is owned by a national government and takes out investments in foreign financial assets.
English (US) ·