The TikTok deal between the United States and China has been finalized, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday.
“We reached a final deal on TikTok. We reached one in Madrid, and I believe that as of today, all the details are ironed out, and that will be for the two leaders to consummate that transaction on Thursday in Korea,” Bessent said during an appearance on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
President Donald Trump is on a visit to Asia, in which he will be making stops in Malaysia, Japan and then South Korea to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The two leaders will convene at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit on Thursday, where the popular social media app and Trump’s tariff agenda are likely topics of discussion.
Trump signed an executive order in September officially finalizing the deal with China over TikTok. The president said Xi gave him the “go-ahead” on the deal, which has been many months in the making.
The computer software company Oracle will be TikTok’s “trusted security provider” and will monitor Americans’ data and security on the app. The app’s algorithm will be retrained using U.S. data and will no longer be controlled by TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance.
About 80% of the platform will be made into a U.S. joint venture owned by Oracle and investment firm Silver Lake Partners. ByteDance is still expected to have about 20% stake in the company and one seat on a new U.S. board of investors. Other board members include Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Rupert Murdoch, two people who have close ties to the president.
Bessent confirmed on Sunday that his role was to get China to approve the transaction and he believes he “successfully accomplished that over the past two days.”
Last year, the U.S. ordered ByteDance to reach a deal selling TikTok or else the app would be shut down in the United States. Congress passed the ban and the Supreme Court later upheld the legislation.
The ban deadline caused the app to go dark for millions of American users temporarily, but upon taking office, Trump pushed back the deadline and later signed several more extensions until September.
The ban stemmed from bipartisan concern that U.S. users’ data was being shared with the Chinese government. Several U.S. companies put forth bids to buy the app and it remained unclear who would control the widely used app until Trump’s announcement last month. He’s often praised TikTok users and claimed the platform and its young users propelled him to win last year’s election.
It’s unclear if the official ownership transfer will begin right away, but the meeting Thursday may finally put TikTok’s long-awaited ownership debacle to bed.