The long, confusing saga over TikTok’s future in the United States seems to be reaching its end. Three months after President Trump signed an executive order setting the stage for a spinoff, TikTok CEO Shou Chew told employees that the company and its parent, ByteDance, had officially signed the paperwork to hand over control of the app’s US operations.
According to the internal memo, the terms match those outlined by President Trump back in September. A group of American investors will take charge of the new entity. This group includes tech giant Oracle and investment firms Silver Lake and MGX. Together, they will hold the majority ownership, while ByteDance retains a smaller, minority stake in the venture.
Chew’s note to staff marks January 22, 2026, as the expected closing date for the deal. Once the ink dries, this new “TikTok US” will operate independently. The company plans to build this new version on the foundation of the existing TikTok US Data Security (USDS) organization. This independent team will hold the keys to everything the US government cares about: protecting user data, managing the recommendation algorithm, and determining content moderation policy.
However, one major question mark remains: Beijing. While President Trump claimed in September that China was “fully on board” with the arrangement, Chinese officials haven’t been nearly as loud in their support. Since October, when China’s Commerce Ministry vaguely promised to “properly resolve” the issues, public updates from that side of the Pacific have been scarce.
If everything goes according to plan next month, it will close the book on a stressful year for the app’s millions of users and creators. The finalized deal will land almost exactly one year after Trump signed his first executive order to pause the law that would have banned the app. After several extensions and months of negotiation, TikTok is here to stay, under new American management.
