TikTok Parent ByteDance Reportedly Draws $480 Billion Valuation in Minority-Stake Auction — Up $80 Billion+ from Earlier in 2025

With TikTok U.S. seemingly poised to continue operating under new owners, the app’s ByteDance parent has reportedly seen its valuation rocket to almost $500 billion.

That close to half-trillion-dollar valuation surfaced in reports from Bloomberg and The Times, both of which described a recent bidding war for a small interest in the tech giant.

Previously owned by Bank of China Group Investment, the stake was reportedly expected to draw a $200 million winning bid, with a $360 billion overall valuation for ByteDance, at the outset. In the end, Kathy Xu’s Capital Today reportedly bested the competition by putting up $300 million at the initially mentioned valuation.

Assuming the $480 billion figure is accurate, it would place ByteDance near the astronomical $500 billion valuation behind ChatGPT developer OpenAI as of October.

More pressingly, the former sum is materially larger than that attached to the TikTok developer at 2025’s beginning.

One example: An earlier report from Bloomberg, published in late February and pointing to a ByteDance valuation mark-up to “$400 billion-plus.” From the company’s perspective, the biggest change in the interim has undoubtedly been the (reportedly) finalized agreement for TikTok to remain afloat in the States under new owners.

We haven’t heard much at all about the deal since October’s conclusion, when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicated that the Chinese government had signed off. While the present silence isn’t necessarily encouraging, logic and evidence suggest that the transaction is likely trending in the right direction.

On the evidence side, that refers in part to the treasury secretary’s remarks; and on the logic side, there’s ByteDance’s above-described massive valuation.

Admittedly, separate factors are in play as well; opportunities to buy a piece of ByteDance aren’t exactly common and, when they do emerge, may encourage aggressive bidding.

(An adjacent question: Are numbers simply flying around the tech space? Per Reuters, SoftBank recently handed OpenAI an implied valuation of closer to $750 billion; the same outlet in late August said ByteDance itself had seemingly settled on a $330 billion valuation for a share buyback.)

But if the Beijing-based business was moments away from shutting down its flagship platform in the world’s largest economy, the valuation probably wouldn’t have jumped by $80 billion (or more) in a matter of months. Additionally, besides receiving an upfront payday for its TikTok U.S. interest, ByteDance will reportedly collect 50% of the platform’s domestic profits.

Bringing the focus back to the music world, from a dealmaking perspective, TikTok hasn’t taken its foot off the gas in November. Now prepping its first-ever U.S. creator awards, the app dramatically expanded its iHeartMedia partnership 11 days ago, before Amazon Music earlier this week rolled out a “Share to TikTok” button.