Trump approved a $14 billion TikTok deal in an executive order, and employees have big questions

• President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday blessing TikTok's US sale for around $14 billion.

• As part of the framework, Oracle will audit TikTok's US algorithm.

• TikTok staffers have questions about what the new structure will mean for their jobs.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Thursday giving his approval for a sale of TikTok's US business to a buyer consortium.

Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the deal would value TikTok US at "around $14 billion."

The exact make-up of the new consortium has not yet been revealed. Trump said on Thursday that Oracle and Larry Ellison would be part of the deal, which would include "four or five world-class investors."

"Oracle is playing a very big part," Trump said on Thursday.

He added that Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch would be involved in the deal.

Vance referred to the buyers as a "blue chip group of investors."

After years of uncertainty about its US future due to a divestment law, TikTok can run its business without fear of a ban.

As part of the deal, US users will still be able to watch videos from creators in the rest of the world, and vice versa, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Monday. Oracle will audit the US spin-off's algorithm, which will be "retrained and operated in the United States outside of ByteDance's control," Leavitt said.

"What this deal ensures is that the American entity, the American investors, will actually control the algorithm," Vance said.

The US will not get an equity stake in TikTok, but the government does expect to receive a fee for facilitating the sale, the president said on Friday. The Chinese government has yet to announce final sign-off on a deal, but Trump said on Thursday that Chinese leader Xi Jinping "gave us the go-ahead."

A variety of questions remain about what TikTok's US business will look like after it is spun off.

Will advertising partners still be able to make global ad buys? What becomes of TikTok Shop, its e-commerce play? Do TikTok's new owners want to make a long-term bet on social shopping, or will they focus more on short-term revenue?

Some US TikTok employees are worried that their new owners will deprioritize their team or division, or lay them off entirely, they told Business Insider.

"If it works out, great. If it doesn't, we'll have to look for another job," one current staffer who works in TikTok's e-commerce division said.

Another TikTok employee was curious what the sale would mean for their ByteDance stock after the deal goes through. They also wondered whether a "retrained" algorithm in the US would be as good as the current one that ByteDance oversees.