The Chinese government has given its go-ahead to an agreement that will see ByteDance relinquish majority control of the U.S. subsidiary of popular short-video app TikTok to American investors.
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Scott Bessent, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, confirmed this on Thursday during an interview with Fox Business Network. Bessent noted that the agreement was finalized in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
It comes after U.S. President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping met on Thursday in Busan, South Korea, where they also agreed to new trade terms, particularly regarding tariffs. However, the government official noted that he expects the resolution on the deal to be reached over the coming weeks and months.
Earlier on Sunday, Bessent, during an interview on CBS News, said “all the details” on the deal were “ironed out” in Madrid, Spain.
TikTok Transfer Deal Presses On
The development comes over a month after Trump signed an executive order declaring the TikTok sale ready, with a new joint venture to run the business valued at $14 billion.
Trump’s executive order outlined a sale structure to meet the national security requirements of the bipartisan 2024 law, which mandated that ByteDance divest its U.S. operations for TikTok. Under the law, TikTok faced a nationwide ban in January 2025 due to its failure to complete the sale.
Meanwhile, the latest update follows months of uncertainty over the transfer process. Last month, Trump issued his fourth delay of the ban on the platform, pushing it back by another 90 days to December 16. This is even as the U.S. leader, days later, said the country “made progress” on the deal after a phone call with Xi.
TikTok to Get New Control Structure in U.S.
According to reports, ByteDance will have less than 20% control in the new joint-venture company, with the rest going to a consortium of American investors, including software giant Oracle (ORCL) and private equity firms Andreessen Horowitz and Silver Lake. The new company is to be overseen by a U.S.-dominated board, with one member appointed by the Trump administration.
Oracle has been confirmed as an investor to take control of the platform’s U.S. user data and recommendation algorithm. Yet questions remain about whether the algorithm for the American market will differ from those used in other regions.
What Is the Best Social Media Stock to Buy?
As the transfer process continues, investors are watching the social media space for opportunities. Using TipRanks’ Stock Comparison tool, the chart below shows that Meta Platforms (META) and Pinterest (PINS) currently offer the highest upside potential.
