TikTok U.S. is poised to get a new ownership structure — and a new app for American users — if the Trump administration’s much-delayed efforts to ink a deal to comply with a federal law banning Chinese control of the app go through.
President Donald Trump, speaking with reporters Tuesday outside the White House, said, “We’ve got a deal on TikTok. I’ve reached a deal with China.” He said there are “very big companies that want to buy it.” Trump said he is going to speak with Chinese president Xi Jinping on Friday “to confirm everything.”
Since the deal isn’t final yet, Trump is postponing his administration’s enforcement of the TikTok divest-or-ban bill again by 90 days — the fourth time he’s done so — with the new deadline of Dec. 16.
Trump did not provide details on TikTok U.S.’s potential new owners. According to a Wall Street Journal report, TikTok’s U.S. business would be 80% owned and controlled by an investor consortium including Oracle, Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz. In addition, current ByteDance investors including Susquehanna International, KKR and General Atlantic, would be part of the 80% ownership group. Chinese shareholders including ByteDance would own the remainder, according to the Journal report, which cited anonymous sources. The new TikTok U.S. company would have a U.S.-dominated board that includes a member designated by the U.S. government, per the WSJ report.
U.S. and Chinese officials met for trade talks Monday in Madrid, where China’s top trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, told reporters the two sides had reached a “basic framework consensus” for a deal to keep TikTok available in the U.S., according to a Reuters report.
Reps for TikTok and ByteDance did not respond to requests for comment.
Under a U.S. law that went into effect Jan. 19, 2025, it is illegal for American companies to host or distribute TikTok in the country as long as it remains controlled by Chinese parent company ByteDance. The legislation passed last year with overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress, on fears that the popular video entertainment app’s ties to China‘s communist regime make it a national security risk. It was signed into law by President Biden.
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The Trump administration has been trying to reach a deal to restructure TikTok U.S.’s ownership in a way that complies with the law while also being an arrangement that will be acceptable to the Chinese government.
ByteDance has said 60% of its ownership is represented by global institutional investors including BlackRock, General Atlantic and Susquehanna, with 20% owned by its Chinese founders and 20% by employees including those in the United States. The U.S. divest-or-ban law prohibits distribution of any app in which companies or individuals located in a country that is a “foreign adversary” to the United States “directly or indirectly own” at least a 20% stake.
The transfer of ownership would result in TikTok’s current U.S. users having to download and install a new app, which will be wholly separate from the app as it exists in the rest of the world, per the Journal. The U.S. version of the app will have a content-recommendation algorithm that uses technology licensed from ByteDance, while Oracle will continue to manage and host TikTok’s U.S. data.
Trump, in the final months of his first administration, tried unsuccessfully to ban TikTok unless its ownership was transferred to U.S. companies. But after the 2024 election Trump said “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” because “there are those who say” the app helped drive support for him among young voters.
From Variety US