Oracle said Monday that the Chinese owner of TikTok has picked it to be its "trusted technology provider" over rival Microsoft.
Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger told The Associated Press that she was confirming remarks made by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who told CNBC on Monday that TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, submitted its proposal to the U.S. government for approval.
"We did get a proposal over the weekend that includes Oracle as the trusted technology partner with Oracle making many representations for national security issues," Mnuchin said.
Mnuchin said there's also a commitment to make TikTok's global operations a U.S.-headquartered company with 20,000 new jobs.
President Donald Trump's administration has threatened to ban TikTok by Sept 20 and ordered owner ByteDance to sell its U.S. business, claiming national security risks due to its Chinese ownership. The government worries about user data being funneled to Chinese authorities. TikTok denies it is a national security risk and is suing to stop the administration from enacting the threatened ban.
Much remains unclear about the proposed deal with Oracle, which is pointedly not referring to it as a sale or acquisition.
Any deal must still be reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, known as CFIUS, a U.S. government group chaired by the Treasury Secretary that studies mergers for national security reasons. Mnuchin said he expects the group to review the proposal this week and later make a recommendation to the president.
The president can approve or deny a transaction recommended by the panel, though Trump has already voiced support for Oracle as a "great company" that could handle the acquisition.
Microsoft said in a Sunday statement that ByteDance "let us know today they would not be selling TikTok's U.S. operations to Microsoft."
