By Echo Wang and Ken Wu

NEW YORK/HONG KONG, Feb 25 (Reuters) - General Atlantic is selling a stake in ByteDance in a deal that values the Chinese social media giant at about $550 billion, reflecting a significant rise in its valuation, two sources familiar with the matter said.

The potential sale of the stake would be the first since the administration of US President Donald Trump agreed to sell ByteDance's US TikTok assets in January, and would represent a 66 percent jump in the company's value since last year's share buyback valued it at more than $330 billion.

Sources reported last month that this represents a 15 percent increase over a secondary market deal in November 2025 that valued ByteDance at approximately $480 billion. A secondary market deal refers to existing shareholders selling stakes in unlisted companies to another investor.

One of the sources said that General Atlantic, which first invested in ByteDance in 2017 when the company was valued at around $20 billion, began the process of selling some of its assets in the past few weeks and hopes to complete the sale in March.

The financial terms of the sale of the stake, or General Atlantic's stake in ByteDance, or the size of its stake in the Chinese social media company after the deal, are not yet known.

The planned deal highlights the sharp and sustained rise in ByteDance's valuation in the private sector market, and enhances the prospects for other investors in the company who are expected to reap substantial profits when the company's shares go public for the first time.

The two sources declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media. ByteDance did not respond to a Reuters request for comment, while General Atlantic declined to comment on the proposed stake sale.