In a move with far-reaching implications for the global tech industry and U.S.-China relations, President Donald Trump announced on September 25, 2025, that a deal had been struck to bring TikTok, the wildly popular social media platform, under the control of American investors. The agreement, which comes after months of political wrangling, legal battles, and international negotiations, is poised to rescue the China-based app from a looming ban while raising new questions about the future of digital privacy, corporate governance, and the ever-contentious relationship between Washington and Beijing.
The deal, as outlined by Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance during an Oval Office announcement, will see a consortium of U.S. investors—including tech giant Oracle, Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell, and media magnate Rupert Murdoch—take a controlling stake in a newly formed, U.S.-based version of TikTok. ByteDance, the platform’s current China-based parent company, will retain less than 20% ownership and a single seat on the new board, but will be excluded from any security-related matters, according to White House officials and reporting by ABC News and the Associated Press.
“This deal really does mean Americans can use TikTok but actually use it with more confidence than they had in the past because their data is secure and it won’t be used as a propaganda weapon like it has in the past,” Vice President Vance said, as quoted by ABC News. The new entity, expected to be valued at $14 billion, will be governed by a board chosen by the U.S. investors, with further details about the full roster of investors promised in the coming days.
Yet, even as the ink dries on the executive order, uncertainty swirls around several key aspects of the agreement. For starters, China has not publicly confirmed its approval of the deal. While Trump claimed that Chinese President Xi Jinping had personally signed off, Chinese state media remained silent and officials in Beijing have been notably noncommittal. “This ambiguity means that future obstacles cannot be ruled out, whether through export controls on TikTok’s algorithm or other retaliatory measures,” Sarah Kreps, director of the Tech Policy Institute at Cornell University, told ABC News. The Chinese Foreign Ministry, for its part, reiterated its hope that the U.S. would provide “an open, fair, and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese enterprises investing in the United States.”
The deal’s legal context is equally complex. Congress passed a sweeping ban last spring, giving TikTok a 270-day window to sever ties with ByteDance or face removal from U.S. app stores. The law, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and signed by President Joe Biden, was upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court in January 2025 after TikTok’s First Amendment challenge failed. Trump, now back in the White House, delayed the ban multiple times to allow for negotiations, ultimately culminating in this week’s proposed divestiture.
Rep. John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, praised the deal as “an important step” but cautioned that divestment alone was not enough. “The law also set firm guardrails that prohibit cooperation between ByteDance and any prospective TikTok successor on the all-important recommendation algorithm, as well as preclude operational ties between the new entity and ByteDance,” Moolenaar said in a statement. He has requested an urgent briefing from the White House to ensure the deal complies with both the letter and spirit of the law.
The fate of TikTok’s algorithm—the proprietary formula that curates each user’s content feed—has emerged as the most contentious issue in the negotiations. Under the terms announced so far, the new U.S. venture will license the ByteDance-owned algorithm, with Oracle tasked with auditing and monitoring it for security purposes. “The U.S. company will have control over how the algorithm pushes content to users,” Vance asserted. But some experts remain skeptical, pointing out that the precise details of the algorithm’s operation and oversight remain murky. “Is it ‘the’ algorithm or a newly formed U.S. algorithm formed for the deal?” asked Robert Rogowsky, a professor of trade and economic diplomacy at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies, in comments to ABC News.
Bart Knijnenburg, an associate professor at Clemson University who studies recommendation systems, warned that simply relocating the algorithm to the U.S. would not automatically solve concerns about bias or addictive design. “Moving it to the U.S. is not going to magically solve these types of problems,” he told the Associated Press. “Any company might put undue influence on these applications and from a business perspective, the best way to engage users is to make them addicted to watching these videos, which is not a good idea.”
Another flashpoint is ByteDance’s continued, albeit reduced, involvement in the new venture. While ByteDance’s stake will be capped below 20% and its board representative barred from security matters, critics argue that any presence on the board could allow Beijing to retain influence over the app. “ByteDance’s reported role as the largest single shareholder in a restructured TikTok U.S. venture, combined with a board seat, ensures continuing Chinese influence over the app,” said Craig Singleton of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Plainly put, ByteDance on the board means Beijing in the building.”
The valuation of the new U.S.-based TikTok has also raised eyebrows. At $14 billion, some analysts consider the figure surprisingly low given the platform’s massive popularity, especially among young Americans. Daniel Keum, a management professor at Columbia University, suggested that “politics overrode the business case” or that the licensing structure could be designed to depress the app’s value in the U.S. market. Nonetheless, Vance described the terms as “a good deal” for investors, leaving it to the market to determine TikTok’s true worth.
Underlying the entire saga are deep-seated anxieties in Washington about Chinese influence over American public discourse and data. As TikTok’s user base soared in recent years, lawmakers across the political spectrum voiced fears that Beijing could use the platform to collect sensitive information or manipulate the content Americans see. “ByteDance has shown time and again that it is a bad actor, and the Chinese Communist Party’s ultimate goal is to see America divided and weakened,” Moolenaar asserted. Such concerns drove the rare bipartisan consensus that led to the divestment law in the first place.
Despite the many unanswered questions, the deal marks a significant milestone in the ongoing tug-of-war over digital sovereignty, national security, and the future of global technology platforms. As the dust settles, lawmakers, investors, and users alike will be watching closely to see how the new TikTok navigates its American rebirth—and whether it can truly deliver on promises of security, transparency, and fair play for all.
