Oracle continues to rise, rumored to be taking over TikTok's US algorithm

According to the Zhitong Finance APP, Oracle (ORCL.US) saw its stock price rise nearly 2% in pre-market trading on Monday due to market optimism regarding its potential role in the TikTok-related transaction.A White House official revealed that as part of a new agreement to sell the popular Chinese app to a consortium of American investors, Oracle will rebuild and ensure the security of the new algorithm for TikTok's U.S. version.The official outlined on Monday that this plan aims to ensure that after the Chinese parent company ByteDance divests TikTok, the American acquirers will have complete control over its recommendation algorithm in the U.S. According to the agreement, U.S. TikTok holders will lease a copy of the algorithm from ByteDance, after which Oracle will conduct a "thorough reconstruction" of the algorithm.Data from U.S. users will be stored on secure cloud servers managed by Oracle, with safeguards in place to prevent foreign adversaries from accessing the data. ByteDance will not have access to information about U.S. TikTok users and will not have control over its algorithm in the U.S. market.A Q&A document accompanying the official's remarks stated, "As a security partner in the U.S., Oracle will be responsible for operating, retraining, and continuously monitoring the U.S. version of the algorithm to ensure that platform content is not subject to improper manipulation or surveillance."The official added that under the deal, Oracle will work with the U.S. government on various aspects, from retraining the algorithm to application development and source code review. It remains unclear what role the government may play in overseeing the application, its algorithm, and user data.The official stated that part of Oracle's role in overseeing the U.S. algorithm will be to "ensure the prevention of improper manipulation," but did not provide further details.It is understood that retraining and securing the algorithm will further expand Oracle's profitable relationship with TikTok. The Austin-based company provides cloud services for the app and hosts user data in the U.S. and other countries as part of a multi-billion dollar partnership known as "Project Texas."Finally, the White House official also noted that Trump plans to sign an executive order this week to formally approve the transaction