U.S., China Reach Final TikTok Transfer Deal

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington and Beijing have reached a final deal to transfer TikTok’s U.S. operations to a U.S.-based joint venture that Presidents Trump and Xi are expected to “consummate” when they meet in Busan, South Korea, later this week. The arrangement is intended to implement Trump’s executive order and a 2024 law (and a congressional ban) requiring U.S.-controlled operations, and has been reported to leave ByteDance with a minority stake under 20% and value the restructured U.S. entity at roughly $14 billion. Media reports and administration statements have floated U.S. investors — including Oracle, Andreessen Horowitz, Silver Lake, Rupert Murdoch, Michael Dell and Larry Ellison — as participants, though Bessent said he negotiated Chinese approval but is not involved in commercial terms and many specifics remain undisclosed. Negotiators said the talks also produced a broader U.S.–China trade truce—averting threatened tariff hikes, deferring rare-earth export curbs temporarily and securing Chinese agricultural purchases—while preserving existing export controls on advanced semiconductors and limits on certain Chinese investment. Key details about the buyer, commercial terms and the precise security, governance and algorithm controls for TikTok’s U.S. operations remain opaque, leaving legal, regulatory and political questions unresolved ahead of the summit.