US and Chinese officials have reached a framework agreement to transfer TikTok to US-controlled ownership, resolving a long-running dispute. US trade representative Jamieson Greer confirmed the deal after talks in Madrid, while Chinese negotiator Li Chenggang said both sides agreed on a basic framework.
The agreement follows years of national security concerns in Washington over TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance. Legislation signed by Joe Biden in 2024 required ByteDance to sell TikTok within nine months or face a ban, with Donald Trump repeatedly extending the deadline.
Previous acquisition attempts by Microsoft, Walmart, and Oracle collapsed, though Oracle has remained TikTok’s US cloud provider since 2022. Final details are expected after Trump meets China’s president Xi Jinping on Friday, with both leaders’ approval still pending.
The US hosts more than 135 million TikTok users, including the White House, which recently launched an official account despite the app being banned on government devices.
