The US and China have signed off on a deal to sell TikTok’s US business to a consortium of mostly US investors led by Oracle and Silver Lake, capping off a yearslong battle between the social media app and the two superpowers.
The deal — outlined by the chief executive of TikTok parent ByteDance in an internal memo last month — is set to close this week, people familiar with the matter told Semafor.
TikTok CEO Shou Chew said in December that ByteDance had signed a binding agreement with investors but that regulators hadn’t yet indicated their approval and that “there was more work to be done.” The deal closing suggests an end to an on-again, off-again battle, removing a sticking point in US-China relations at a time when tensions are running high.
The new structure leaves ByteDance with just under 20% of the US business, with 15% stakes going to Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX, a state-owned investment firm in the UAE focused on AI. Other investors include Susquehanna, Dragoneer and DFO, Michael Dell’s family office.
The final deal closing is intended to meet a Jan. 22 deadline outlined by the Trump administration in an executive order that granted a 120-day stay on the enforcement of the federal ban. Former President Joe Biden in 2024 signed a law requiring ByteDance to divest its US business or face a ban in the country over national security concerns.
It was unclear how much ByteDance received for the US business — US Vice President JD Vance said in September the deal would value the unit at roughly $14 billion. It was also unclear what negotiations occurred over TikTok’s powerful algorithm, which has been the main point of contention between the US and Chinese governments and has scuttled past deals in the long-running saga.
Chew’s December memo said the new independent entity will control data protection, content moderation and algorithm security and that the entity would be “governed by a new seven-member majority-American board of directors.”
The Treasury, White House, Oracle, Silver Lake, and the Chinese embassy didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.