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TikTok U.S. deal wins Trump’s approval, Vance says business valued at $14B
Bay Area Times
September 26, 2025
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Top stories today:
- TikTok U.S. deal wins Trump’s approval, valuing it at $14B
- OpenAI launches GDPval to test AI on “real-world” tasks
- Elon’s xAI sues OpenAI for alleged trade secret theft
- CoreWeave expands OpenAI deals to as much as $22.4B
- ChatGPT Pulse launches to deliver daily news, research
- Google DeepMind debuts AI models for robots that can sort laundry
0. Data and calendar
All values as of 6 AM ET / 3 AM PT, other than S&P500 and NASDAQ close (4 PM ET / 1 PM PT).
All times are ET.
Listen to our AI-generated podcast summarizing today’s newsletter (beware of hallucinations):
1. TikTok U.S. deal wins Trump’s approval, Vance says business valued at $14B
Trump signed an EO approving the proposal to keep TikTok alive in the U.S. with certain conditions.
Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX will be the main investors in TikTok’s U.S. business, controlling ~45% stake.
35% stake will be held by ByteDance investors and new holders.
ByteDance will reportedly own 19.9% stake in the TikTok U.S. entity.
No ByteDance representatives were present at the signing, and no purchase price was mentioned.
The order grants a 120-day reprieve to give all parties time to finalize the deal.
Trump said he’d make the TikTok algorithm “100% MAGA” if he could, but wants all views “treated right.”
TikTok is a news source for 55% of its U.S. users, up from 22% in 2020, per Pew Research
Younger people without a college degree are more likely to be regular news consumers on TikTok
2. OpenAI launches GDPval to test AI on “economically valuable, real-world tasks”
Claude Opus 4.1 topped the benchmark, with GPT-5-high coming in second:
GDPval is based on 9 industries contributing the most to America’s GDP, including healthcare and finance.
Tests AI’s performance in 44 occupations, including software engineers, nurses, and journalists.
For the 1st version, OpenAI had professionals compare AI- and human-written reports to pick the best.
The current evaluation is one-shot and doesn’t reflect tasks that require iteration or building context.
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4. Elon’s xAI sues OpenAI for alleged trade secret theft through employee poaching
