ByteDance Offers $6 Billion Share Buyback at $400 Billion Valuation
Key Facts
ByteDance plans to buy back up to $6 billion in shares from existing investors at a valuation of about $400 billion, according to a report published by The Information on November 13, 2026. The program values the company about 20% higher than the valuation used in the buyback a year ago, the report said. The offer price is $241.35 per share, compared with $200.41 in the previous round in November 2025. The offer gives existing investors an opportunity to sell their shares to the company through its private program. The move comes as the timing of any potential initial public offering remains unresolved.
The current price marks an increase from the previous round, rising from $200.41 to $241.35 per share. The overall valuation used in the buyback has also risen about 20% year over year. The Information reported that ByteDance launched its share buyback program for investors in 2022 and has offered it every year since. The continuity shows that the program provides a recurring channel for selling shares in a company that remains private. Reuters previously reported that ByteDance buyback programs allow employees to cash out part of their holdings, but the current offer covered by The Information is aimed at existing investors.
Valuations recorded in the company's previous programs have varied according to their timing and context. In December 2023, ByteDance offered to buy about $5 billion in shares at a valuation of about $268 billion, according to a Reuters report; a source cited by the agency said that valuation was about 10% below the company's value a year earlier. In October 2023, the company was valued at about $223.5 billion in a share buyback program for U.S. employees, about 26% below the prior year's valuation, according to another Reuters report. These figures place the previous offers in a different time frame from the November 2026 program. The current program sets a valuation of about $400 billion, with a share price higher than the price recorded in the previous buyback in November 2025.
The buyback offers came against a backdrop of revenue growth at the company in 2025, according to sources cited by Reuters. Revenue rose about 25% year over year in the second quarter of that year to nearly $48 billion. In the first quarter, revenue exceeded $43 billion, compared with $42.3 billion at Meta in the same period, the report said. These figures relate to earlier periods and do not represent financial results announced alongside the current buyback program. Reuters described ByteDance as an exception among late-stage private companies because it uses its balance sheet to fund buyback programs rather than relying on outside investor capital, as companies such as SpaceX and OpenAI do, according to the report.
Regarding TikTok in the United States, ByteDance struck a deal with the Trump administration in January 2026 to avoid a ban on the app, selling an 80% stake in its U.S. data security operation to a U.S.-owned joint venture while retaining the app's revenue-generating operations, according to The Information. The report said the deal removed a major geopolitical risk that had been one of the obstacles to a potential initial public offering. But removing that obstacle does not set a date for a listing, and the timing of an offering remains uncertain. Any potential listing would require Chinese government approval, the report said. The current buyback program therefore remains an outlet for existing investors amid continued uncertainty over when a public offering might take place.