Trump says China has approved TikTok deal

U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Chinese leader Xi Jinping has backed the sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations to American investors.

He added that the details of the deal still need to be finalized.

“The call was a very good one, we will be speaking again by phone, appreciate the TikTok approval, and both look forward to meeting at APEC!” Trump told reporters at the White House.

The plan involves ByteDance selling its stake in TikTok’s U.S. unit to a group of American investors. In an official statement, China’s Foreign Ministry said the government “respects the will of companies and is pleased to see companies conduct business negotiations on the basis of market rules and reach solutions that comply with Chinese laws and regulations and balance interests.” At the same time, Beijing stressed that the U.S. must ensure “an open, fair, and non-discriminatory business environment” for Chinese investors.

According to Bloomberg, potential buyers include Oracle, Andreessen Horowitz, and Silver Lake Management. One of the biggest sticking points remains control over TikTok’s recommendation algorithms, which China considers a critical technology.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the White House will collect a multibillion-dollar fee from investors as compensation for brokering and approving the deal. Under the framework agreement, 80% of TikTok’s U.S. division will go to a consortium of domestic investors, while Chinese ownership will shrink to 20%.

As part of the deal, Oracle will continue to provide cloud services for TikTok in the U.S. under the multibillion-dollar Project Texas initiative, which already governs the storage of American user data.

ByteDance thanked both Trump and Xi for their roles in moving the deal forward and pledged to comply with Chinese law while ensuring TikTok remains stable for its American users.