The US government would charge a multi-billion dollar fee for negotiating the TikTok deal

The U.S. government plans to charge a multibillion-dollar fee in exchange for brokering the deal that will seal the transfer of control of TikTok's operations in the country.

The figure—still under discussion—would be multi-million and would turn state intervention into direct revenue for facilitating a complex operation with many geopolitical and commercial implications.

According to The Wall Street Journal's exclusive, prospective buyers of the famed platform would agree to pay that fee to the Treasury or another federal entity in return for negotiating with Beijing and ensuring the transition of control from ByteDance to a consortium with majority U.S. ownership. Although there is a preliminary deal framework, agreed between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart XI Jinping, there are still many key details to be worked out. For example, the amount and structure of the payment are not finalized, and talks continue between Washington and Beijing.

Under the scheme being discussed, the WSJ reported that a group of new and existing investors—with names such as Silver Lake and Oracle among the possible participants—would control approximately half of the new entity that would operate TikTok in the United States, with ByteDance notably reducing its stake to comply with domestic regulations passed by Congress. The deal, if finalized, would end months of uncertainty about the app's continued presence in the U.S. market while also opening up an unprecedented multibillion-dollar revenue stream for the federal government.

"Investment bankers advising on a typical deal receive fees of less than 1% of the transaction value, and the percentage generally gets smaller as the deal size increases," the WSJ reported. "TikTok's U.S. operations could be worth many billions of dollars depending on the outcome of the deal. Still, a fee in the billions of dollars would be unprecedented."

According to experts, the White House is treating the TikTok case as an exceptional case for geopolitical reasons: the same logic that justified claiming a portion of Nvidia's chip sales to China is now being used to turn brokering into a source of revenue for state coffers.

However, legal experts consulted by the WSJ warn of two immediate or potential risks: first, that charging for concessions linked to national security could conflict with administrative rules and open a path to court battles; second, that the political precedent—turning a diplomatic intervention into a lucrative transaction—could generate conflict between lawmakers of both parties, fueling criticism of the federal government's relationship with companies on strategic issues.

The potential fee is part of a broader trend of the administration claiming economic or institutional advantages in high-impact private deals. If the commission is confirmed, it would be a remarkable precedent: the federal government receiving direct remuneration for negotiating with a foreign power the fate of a giant technology company accused of directly harming the American public.