TikTok CEO Shou Chew told its employees via a memo on Thursday that the company has signed the deal backed by President Donald Trump to spin off its U.S. assets.
While the transaction hasn’t been completed, it brings the company closer to securing its future in the U.S. A law passed last year required TikTok’s U.S. operations to be divested from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, or banned entirely in the U.S. This deal comes after multiple extensions of the deadline for the app to divest or face a ban.
“We have signed agreements with investors regarding a new TikTok U.S. joint venture, enabling over 170 million Americans to continue discovering a world of endless possibilities as part of a vital global community,” Chew said in his memo, which was obtained by CNN. A person familiar with the company confirmed the memo’s accuracy.
READ: ‘Don’t travel to the US’: Viral TikTok claims America will demand DNA from foreign visitors (
Under this agreement, the U.S. Tiktok app will be controlled by a new joint venture 50% of which will be owned by a consortium of investors comprised of tech company Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake and Emirati-backed investment firm MGX. Just over 30% of the joint venture will be held by “affiliates of certain existing investors in ByteDance” and 19.9% will be retained by ByteDance, according to Chew’s memo.
The memo also said that there is more work to be done before the deal is finalized, and that the parties are moving to a close by January 22, 2026.
The Trump administration had said in September that it had reached a deal with China to transfer control of TikTok’s U.S. operations to a group of mostly American investors. The deal is expected to require the Chinese government’s approval before it goes ahead. While President Trump said his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping has agreed to the deal, Beijing is yet to confirm this.
READ: US and China reach ‘final deal’ on TikTok sale (
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Friday: “As for the specific question, I’d refer you to the competent Chinese authorities. China’s position on the TikTok issue is consistent and clear,” when asked if the Chinese government approved of the deal.
The U.S. law, which went into effect in January this year, bans TikTok unless ByteDance divests approximately 80% of its U.S. assets to non-Chinese investors. The new entity will retrain TikTok’s algorithm on U.S. user data and Oracle will oversee storage of Americans’ data, as White House officials previously said.
While the U.S. joint venture will also be responsible for content moderation for U.S. users, Chew’s memo suggests that the ByteDance-controlled global TikTok entity will continue to manage e-commerce, advertising and marketing on the new U.S. platform.