U.S. and China reach landmark agreement to keep TikTok operating in the U.S.

After months of negotiations, the United States and China have reached a major agreement allowing TikTok to keep operating for its 170 million American users.

A logo of TikTok infront of an image of President Trump

Just a day before the September 17 deadline to either shut or sell off the app, the White House has agreed for TikTok to continue operating in the U.S. after an agreement between the United States and China. Instead of a full shutdown, the popular short-video platform will shift its U.S. assets to be transferred from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to American owners. The White House also extended that deadline to December 16.

Under the new agreement, a consortium of major U.S. companies and investors will hold 80% of TikTok's American business. ByteDance will continue to hold the other 19.9%, which falls under a 20% threshold as part of the deal. While there's still no official confirmation about which companies would actually be part of the consortium, a Reuters report suggests that tech firms like Oracle, Silver Lake, and Andreessen Horowitz may be involved.

President Donald Trump, in a White House briefing (via Reuters), said:

"We have a deal on TikTok ... We have a group of very big companies that want to buy it."

The agreement comes with its own set of hurdles, and the 90-day delay will definitely help ByteDance overcome many of them. U.S. lawmakers intend to scrutinize the deal to ensure compliance with security laws, particularly regarding TikTok's famous recommendation algorithm, which China might be reluctant to export.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Tuesday that Trump's willingness to let TikTok go dark was a key factor in motivating China to make a deal.

“President Trump made it clear that he would have been willing to let TikTok go dark, that we were not going to give up national security in favor of the deal."

After the deal goes through, the final U.S.-controlled TikTok entity is expected to have an American-majority board, with at least one government-appointed member to reassure regulators about data privacy and security. Oracle is likely to remain the U.S. host for TikTok's servers.

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