Computing powerhouse Oracle seen as TikTok's new overseer

You may not associate Oracle Corporation with the likes of TikTok. One is a giant software company that makes industrial-grade database and cloud management systems and the other is, well, it's TikTok, the Chinese government-owned social platform associated with short, quirky videos.

TikTok has been living on borrowed time since it was banned from operating in the U.S. over fears that it posed a threat to national security. After a brief shutdown in January 2025, the app was restored following assurances from President Trump that he would find an American firm to take over the operation.

Speculation turned to the usual suspects — Google, Meta and that ilk — but it is Oracle that has spun into the lead position, according to Politico and other inside-the-Beltway media.  

It is, after all, an enormous undertaking. While its products may be simple to the point of frivolity, TikTok boasts a U.S. fanbase of 170 million people, roughly half the country's population, and distributes a mind-numbing number of videos each day, most of them produced by individuals seeking to become "influencers," an occupation that didn't even exist a decade or so ago.

Only megacompanies need apply

It would take a megacompany like Oracle to successfully mediate and moderate this constant stream of bits, somehow keeping any secret U.S. data from making its way to the Chinese inner sancta.

Currently based in Austin, Texas, after fleeing Redwood City, California, Oracle is headed by Larry Ellison, its co-founder and chairman. Ellison is known for his libertarian-leaning views and has supported both conservative and centrist political figures over the years.

In recent years, he has donated heavily to rightward-leaning PACs and candidates, a shift that may be paying off as Vice President JD Vance and national security adviser Mike Waltz are said to be in serious negotiations with Oracle to play a role in TikTok's future.

Congressional leaders are described as being cautious about the arrangement, fearing that American data could still be filtered and digested by enemy forces in Peking. It was Congress, after all, that voted overwhelmingly to oust TikTok and it may not be ready to back away from that decision.

In its report, Politico said that the deal would essentially require the U.S. government to depend on Oracle to oversee the data of American users and ensure the Chinese government doesn’t have a backdoor to it — a promise many fear would be impossible to keep.

Trump is facing an April 5 deadline to secure a new operator for TikTok. The talks being headed by Vance and Waltz are said to be "advanced," so anxious TikTok fans may not have too much longer to wait for a proposed solution to their fears that their favorite pastime will go away.