ByteDance, the Chinese tech giant best known as the parent company of TikTok, is putting itself in the same league as global heavyweights like Chevron, General Electric, and Coca-Cola. But at least one major U.S. investor believes the company’s true value is even higher.
Fidelity Investments, which backed ByteDance in 2020 through its flagship Contrafund, recently marked the company at more than $385 billion in its end-of-July filings. That figure is nearly 17% above ByteDance’s own self-valuation of $330 billion, making it one of the most valuable private companies in the world.
ByteDance’s Buyback and Self-Valuation
Reports from late August revealed that ByteDance is conducting a share buyback program, designed to give employees a liquidity option while keeping equity inside the company. In connection with that move, ByteDance set its valuation at around $330 billion — a modest 5.5% increase compared to earlier this year, when it valued itself at $315 billion.
Even at its own stated figure, ByteDance’s valuation places it above many of the world’s most iconic companies. But Fidelity’s estimate pushes it even further, ranking ByteDance as more valuable than publicly traded firms such as Palantir Technologies and even Bank of America, a staple of Wall Street.
Neither Fidelity nor ByteDance commented directly on the figures. Still, industry watchers note that companies often understate valuations in buyback scenarios to acquire equity at a relative discount. Building a larger equity pool can prove advantageous later, particularly if fresh fundraising is required or if the company needs more financial flexibility.
A Business Model Under Pressure
ByteDance’s lofty valuations come with a dose of irony. The company generates tens of billions of dollars in quarterly revenue, driven largely by TikTok’s global dominance, yet it still struggles to convert that success into consistent profits. Profitability remains one of the company’s key challenges, as it faces high costs related to infrastructure, content moderation, and regulatory hurdles across multiple regions.
Despite those issues, Fidelity’s bullish stance reflects the belief that TikTok’s growth trajectory and ByteDance’s broader product ecosystem give the company far more value than its own conservative estimate. For investors, the potential upside from ByteDance’s market reach, user base, and monetization opportunities outweighs the uncertainty around profitability.
The U.S. Regulatory Cloud
Adding another layer of complexity is the political uncertainty surrounding TikTok’s U.S. operations. ByteDance has been navigating an ever-changing regulatory landscape since Washington raised concerns over national security and data privacy.
Former President Donald Trump issued an executive order requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations, with an initial deadline set earlier in the year. That date was later postponed to September 17, though Trump hinted that extensions were possible.
At one point, TikTok even went dark in the U.S. temporarily to comply with the original divest-or-sell deadline. But the enforcement of the law was suspended after Trump directed his Attorney General not to move forward, despite the Senate’s passage of the measure. In an unexpected twist, the White House launched its own TikTok account shortly after, and Trump himself publicly said he was a fan of the app.
In another eyebrow-raising moment, Trump floated the idea of the government taking a 50% stake in TikTok, likening it to the government’s previous move to secure a minority stake in Intel. However, he did not provide additional details about how such a joint venture might be structured, leaving the proposal more speculation than policy.
What the Valuations Mean
The discrepancy between ByteDance’s $330 billion self-valuation and Fidelity’s $385 billion figure underscores how difficult it is to pin down the true worth of a private tech giant that straddles multiple markets, geographies, and political battles. For ByteDance, managing its valuation is as much about financial strategy as it is about navigating regulatory uncertainty.
As TikTok continues to dominate the global social media landscape, and as ByteDance explores new products and business lines, the company’s market value is likely to remain a hot topic — both for investors seeking returns and for regulators questioning its influence.
For now, one thing is clear: despite its profitability struggles and political challenges, ByteDance is considered by some of the world’s biggest investors to be worth more than many of America’s most established corporate titans.
