TikTok agrees to US investment deal that's definitely, eventually, probably going to happen

Remember how TikTok is such a huge threat to the United States that it was immediately, permanently banned it’s still on half of our phones? Despite its seeming unwillingness to follow through on threats against TikTok in any meaningful way, the current US administration has instead been pitching a capitulatory framework that would see the service’s US operations transferred to a group of American investors. And now TikTok is signing off — on the idea of that, at least.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew communicated his service’s acceptance of the US deal to the company’s employees earlier today, according to CNN. The agreement would turn TikTok in the US over to a group consisting of approximately 50% new investors, 30% “affiliates of certain existing investors in ByteDance,” and leave about 20% with existing owner ByteDance.

This still isn’t a done deal, but with these agreements now made, the parties involved expect to close in a little over a month, by January 22, 2026. There are also still technical and operational questions about how this new US spin-off would work, and it sounds like ByteDance itself is still going to be pulling all the strings on everything advertising and commerce in the app.

We’re also likely to see some last-minute scrutiny from government on both sides before giving this deal the final thumbs up, but this is definitely the most motion we’ve seen on a “solution” to the TikTok “problem” in months. Who knows? This might actually work out. Or not. Anyway, rest easy, because no one seems actually interested in taking TikTok away from anyone.