Trump Establishes US Sovereign Wealth Fund – Could TikTok Be Its First Purchase?

On 3rd February 2025, US President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order calling for the creation of a Sovereign Wealth Fund and suggested it may be used to buy TikTok.

The Push for a U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund

A sovereign wealth fund is a national investment fund that grows the country's wealth by investing in assets like stocks or real estate. It operates separately from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury, focusing solely on generating profits.

The Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, and the Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, will lead the efforts and present a plan within 90 days for the creation of a sovereign wealth fund.

On Monday, the President said the fund would soon be “one of the biggest”. "We're going to create a lot of wealth for the fund," Trump told reporters, without clarifying where the money would come from. However, the US is currently running a budget deficit.

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“We’re going to stand this thing up within the next 12 months,” Bessent told reporters. “We are going to monetise the asset side of the US balance sheet for the American people.”

President Trump has previously said that a US sovereign wealth fund would finance "great national endeavours" including infrastructure projects as well as medical research.

Could the U.S. Buy TikTok?

After signing the executive order for the fund's creation, he also floated the idea that it could buy up the social media platform TikTok. The ByteDance-owned app, which has over 170 million American users, was briefly taken offline in the US last month, over national security concerns, after the previous administration ordered its owner to sell its US operations or face a ban.

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After taking office, Trump, who had attempted to ban the popular app during his first term, directed the Justice Department to pause enforcement of the law for 75 days. The reprieve has given the company more time to work out a deal with the administration.

"We're going to be doing something, perhaps with TikTok, and perhaps not," Trump said. "If we make the right deal, we'll do it. Otherwise, we won't... we might put that in the sovereign wealth fund."