US President Donald Trump may sign the final agreement on Thursday that will transfer TikTok’s US operations to American investors, following China’s approval of the transaction.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed on Sunday that all details have been resolved between Washington and Beijing, with Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping scheduled to “consummate” the deal.
This high-stakes transaction would end months of uncertainty for TikTok’s 170 million American users and mark a significant diplomatic breakthrough amid escalating US-China trade tensions.
TikTok ownership: Deal structure puts American investors in control
The agreement establishes a new joint venture structure that places approximately 80 percent ownership of TikTok’s US operations in the hands of American investors and companies.
Oracle will play a central role as the app’s security provider and cloud infrastructure operator, while investment firms Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX collectively hold around 45 percent of the venture.
Additional investors include Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell, media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation, and venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital.
ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, will retain less than 20 percent ownership, just below the threshold required by federal law to ensure American control, and will hold only one seat on the new seven-member board of directors.
The arrangement values TikTok’s US business at approximately $14 billion, significantly lower than earlier estimates of $35-40 billion.
Critically, Oracle will oversee all security operations, retrain the app’s algorithm using US data, and continuously monitor content to ensure it remains free from foreign manipulation.
All American user data will be stored domestically in Oracle’s secure cloud environment, addressing longstanding national security concerns.
Political breakthrough ends year-long saga
After nearly a year of tense talks and multiple deadline pushes, the deal is finally done, and it’s being hailed as a major diplomatic win.
Bessent said the two sides first sketched out the basic structure back in September during trade talks in Madrid. The finer points were only finalized over the last two days in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The agreement checks all the boxes under a US law passed in April 2024, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.
That law forced ByteDance to sell off TikTok’s US business by January 19, 2025, or else TikTok would have been banned nationwide over fears that China could spy on Americans or shape what they see.
Trump ended up pushing the deadline four different times, 75 days in January, then again in April and June to keep negotiations alive.
Now, Trump and Xi are set to meet in person this Thursday in South Korea, on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Gyeongju. It will be their first face-to-face meeting since Trump returned to the White House.
And TikTok won’t be the only thing on the agenda.
The two leaders are also expected to talk about broader trade frictions, China’s rare earth export limits, cooperation on fentanyl, and how to ease tariffs that have been rattling global markets throughout 2025.
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