Technology company Oracle is among a consortium of firms that would enable TikTok to continue operations in the U.S. if a framework deal between the United States and China is finalized, sources with knowledge of the negotiations tell CBS News.
The precise structure of the final deal was unclear Monday night, but will include multiple companies, the sources said. It’s not clear what level of involvement Chinese firms — including TikTok’s current parent company ByteDance — will have in the deal, and who will control TikTok’s powerful recommendation algorithm. Presidents Trump and Xi are expected to talk on Friday.
Attempts to reach Oracle executives and a White House spokesperson were unsuccessful. A TikTok spokesperson declined to comment.
“The commercial terms have been agreed upon,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday in Madrid after meetings with Chinese officials on a range of issues, including TikTok.
Li Chenggang, a Chinese vice minister of commerce, also said after the meetings, “China will firmly safeguard the national interests, the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, and carry out technology export approval in accordance with relevant laws and regulations.”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
Mr. Trump was circumspect about a deal with reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “We may let it die, or we may, I don’t know, it depends. Up to China. It doesn’t matter too much. I’d like to do it for the kids. They like it.”
Last year, Congress passed and former President Joe Biden signed a bill that essentially gave TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, an ultimatum: either divest from TikTok or face a ban in the U.S. The Supreme Court upheld the law in a unanimous 9-0 decision. But Mr. Trump has issued a series of orders unilaterally delaying its enforcement. The latest came in June, when he pushed back the deadline for enforcing the measure until this Wednesday.
The president’s orders have directed the Justice Department not to take action or impose penalties against tech companies like Apple and Google for failing to comply with the law by allowing TikTok on their platforms.
The TikTok divestiture law was passed in 2024 after years of bipartisan concern over possible national security risks posed by the ultra-popular video app. Those include worries that the Chinese government could force ByteDance to divulge information on U.S.-based users or manipulate the platform’s algorithm to control what Americans see. TikTok has long denied that Chinese officials exert any influence on the platform.
The concerns stretch back to Mr. Trump’s first term. The president signed an executive order to ban TikTok in the U.S. in 2020 on national security and data privacy grounds, but the move was blocked by a judge. Four years later, Mr. Trump changed course and expressed support for the app, which he has credited for his improved performance among younger voters in last year’s election.
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