Trump okays deal to keep TikTok open in U.S.; extends deadline to 2026
President Donald Trump has cleared the way for TikTok to remain operational in the U.S., although a deal has yet to be signed.
In an executive order signed Sept. 25, 2025, Trump said enforcement of a previous order requiring TikTok‘s Chinese parent company ByteDance to find a new owner for its U.S. business by Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025 is now extended until Jan. 23, 2026.
[READ MORE: Trump gives TikTok more time to divest U.S. operations]
In addition, Trump said in the order that TikTok’s U.S. business will be managed by joint-venture company with less than 20% ownership held by ByteDance. This setup will meet previously established national security requirements for TikTok to continue operating here.
While no details of what U.S. companies or individuals would participate in the new joint venture have been officially released, CNBC reports that Oracle, which has been storing TikTok’s U.S. data on its servers since 2022, as well as private equity firm Silver Lake and the Abu Dhabi-based MGX investment fund, will collectively hold about 45% of TikTok’s U.S. business.
Investors in ByteDance and some other new investment partners would collectively hold about 35%, with ByteDance controlling the remaining stake, according to CNBC. Although Trump said Chinese president Xi Jinping has verbally approved the deal, no official statement from the Chinese government or ByteDance has yet been issued.
TikTok takes winding path to remaining open in U.S.
The continuing saga of whether TikTok will continue to operate in the U.S. dates back to the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which was signed by President Biden in April 2024 in response to longstanding concerns over possible ties between TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance and the Chinese Communist Party and possible risks to U.S. user privacy (ByteDance and TikTok have publicly denied the validity of these concerns).
Due to this legislation, which makes it unlawful for U.S. companies to distribute, maintain, or update TikTok unless U. S. operation of the Chinese-owned platform is severed from Chinese control, TikTok briefly went dark in the U.S. during the weekend of Jan. 18-19.
In February 2025, an executive order from the White House mandated the federal government to establish a sovereign wealth fund, which uses government assets to invest in global markets, companies, real estate and private equity and could be used for the U.S. government to partially or fully finance a TikTok acquisition.
