Wall Street was stunned by Vice President JD Vance’s estimate of TikTok’s valuation, as he put it well below what other top social media companies are worth.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday, clearing the way for a deal to put TikTok in U.S. hands following a divestiture by its Chinese parent, ByteDance. That avoids a total shutdown of the app in the U.S. that was required by law unless TikTok shed its China-based owner.
Speaking as the president signed the executive order in the Oval Office, Vance pegged TikTok’s worth at $14 billion—equal to that of Snapchat parent Snap. While he acknowledged that TikTok’s buyers will ultimately determine the app’s value, his number was still shocking to some.
“This is crazy. I mean, the number’s got to be wrong. It doesn’t make any sense,” Brent Thill, senior technology analyst at Jefferies, told CNBC on Thursday.
Ashwin Binwani, founder of Alpha Binwani Capital, told Bloomberg Vance’s $14 billion assessment is only one-third of TikTok’s actual value.
