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U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that a group of American companies will acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations from its Chinese parent ByteDance, following a framework agreement reached during trade talks with Beijing in Madrid this week.
He also extended the deadline for enforcing a ban on the company for the fourth time to Dec. 16 by an executive order, allowing more time to complete the transaction.
Trump confirmed that he plans to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday to finalize the arrangement and discuss broader trade issues between the world’s two largest economies.
TikTok, which has nearly 2 billion users worldwide and about 170 million in the United States, had faced a Sept. 17 deadline to divest its U.S. business or face a nationwide ban over national security concerns. The concerns focus on potential data sharing with Chinese authorities, a claim the company has repeatedly denied.
The first executive order requiring ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to sell the app’s U.S. operations was signed into law in 2024 by then-President Joe Biden and was later extended in January, April, and June.
The measure is designed to restrict applications owned by companies with ties to foreign governments considered national security risks. Under Trump’s order, the Justice Department is barred from taking enforcement action during the extended period and retroactively for any actions dating back to Jan. 19, 2025, when the original ban was set to take effect.
According to U.S. officials, the ownership structure under discussion would see TikTok’s U.S. business controlled by an investor consortium. The group is expected to include Oracle, a U.S.-based cloud computing company, and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, U.S. media reported. Under the preliminary terms, ByteDance would retain less than 20% of the U.S. unit, while American investors—among them Susquehanna International, KKR, and General Atlantic—would hold the remaining stake.
One unresolved issue is the fate of TikTok’s proprietary algorithm, the recommendation engine that helped the platform achieve global popularity. Officials said the question of technology transfer and licensing will be central to the final agreement.
China confirmed the framework deal reached in Madrid between U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.
The state-run People’s Daily described the agreement as based on "mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation." Beijing added that it would review issues related to TikTok’s technology exports and intellectual property licensing before finalizing the arrangement.
The outcome of the TikTok negotiations is expected to shape the tone of further U.S.-China negotiations in the coming months, as both governments operate under a temporary tariff pause that delays new duties on Chinese imports until November. Treasury Secretary Bessent said new rounds of trade talks were already planned for "about a month" from now at a different location.
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