Remember back in September when President Donald Trump signed an executive order that appeared to finalize some of the terms of a deal to spin off TikTok’s U.S. business? Three months later, the deal itself appears to be one step closer to becoming official.
according to BloombergTikTok CEO Shou Chew told employees that TikTok and ByteDance have signed an agreement to control TikTok’s business in the United States. The terms of the deal appear to be roughly the same as what Trump announced earlier this year. A group of US investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX, will control a majority of the new entity while ByteDance will retain a smaller stake in the project.
According to Chiu’s memo, the deal is expected to close on January 22, 2026. “Upon closing, the US joint venture, built on top of TikTok’s existing US Data Security (USDS) organisation, will operate as an independent entity with authority over US data protection, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurance,” he wrote. Bloomberg. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It is worth noting that it is still unclear the position of Chinese officials on the deal. Trump said last September that China was “fully supportive,” but subsequent meetings between the two sides have so far resulted in vague statements. In October, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce He said It will work “with the United States to properly resolve issues related to TikTok.”
If the deal is indeed completed by next month, it would come nearly a year after Trump’s first executive order delaying a law requiring the sale or blocking of an app interface to take effect. He has signed several other extensions since then.