Trump orders launch of U.S. sovereign wealth fund to potentially save TikTok

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order aiming to kickstart the creation of a US sovereign wealth fund that he said could be used to save TikTok.

"Other countries have sovereign wealth funds, and they're much smaller countries, and they're not the United States," Trump told reporters after signing the order.

A sovereign wealth fund is a state-owned investment fund that manages a country's excess reserves, typically derived from natural resource revenues or trade surpluses, to generate long-term returns.

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Norway's fund, largely built from the country's fossil fuel proceeds, is the world's largest, with Abu Dhabi, China and Saudi Arabia also having considerable versions.

Last year Norway's fund posted a return of 13 percent, bringing its total value to $1.75 trillion.

"The extraordinary size and scale of the US government and the business it does with companies should create value for American citizens," said Trump's Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters the fund would be set up in the next 12 months.

Trump cited the purchase of popular video-sharing app TikTok as a potential example of a transaction that could be facilitated by a US fund, though he did not give details of what he had in mind.

"We might put that in the sovereign wealth fund, whatever we make, or if we do a partnership with very wealthy people," he said.

TikTok is facing down a US law that orders the company to divest from its Chinese owner ByteDance or be banned in the United States.

Trump gave TikTok until early April to obey the law that answers US concerns that the Chinese government could exploit the app to spy on Americans or covertly influence US public opinion.

With TikTok, "if we make the right deal, we'll do it. Otherwise we won't," Trump said in the briefing.

Trump has said he is in talks with several people over the purchase of TikTok, including Elon Musk, Larry Ellison and tech giant Microsoft.