Private equity giant Blackstone has withdrawn from the consortium seeking to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations, a move that casts fresh doubt on President Donald Trump’s repeated assurances that a deal is within reach.
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday that Blackstone’s exit comes amid prolonged delays and heightened uncertainty surrounding the transaction. The New York-based firm had planned to take a minority stake in TikTok’s U.S. business, as part of a Trump-endorsed consortium that includes Susquehanna International Group, General Atlantic, and other institutional investors. The group had emerged as the leading bidder for TikTok’s U.S. operations, with a proposed structure under which U.S. investors would own 80% of the business, while ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, would retain a minority stake.
Despite Trump’s insistence that he has found “very wealthy buyers” for the embattled app and that negotiations are progressing, Blackstone’s withdrawal serves as a stark reminder that the deal remains mired in legal, political, and diplomatic limbo.
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ByteDance is under pressure to divest TikTok’s American operations following the passage of a federal law in April 2024 mandating a sale or shutdown of the popular video platform in the U.S. by January 19, 2025. The law, signed by Trump, cited national security concerns over Chinese access to Americans’ data. Since then, Trump has signed three executive orders, most recently pushing the deadline to September 17, further frustrating lawmakers who view the repeated extensions as a violation of both the spirit and the letter of the law.
Trump, however, has framed the delay as a tactical necessity in ongoing trade negotiations with China. The President told reporters earlier that he would “personally speak to President Xi Jinping” about the TikTok situation, suggesting the deal has now become a bargaining chip in broader U.S.-China trade talks.
However, the obstacles are not limited to Washington. In Beijing, officials have signaled their disapproval of any forced divestiture, particularly one seen as caving to U.S. pressure. China previously amended its export regulations to require government approval for the transfer of certain technologies, including content recommendation algorithms—TikTok’s crown jewel—further complicating the prospect of a clean sale.
ByteDance has explored a variety of options to resolve the standoff, including spinning off TikTok’s U.S. operations into a new American-based entity. Talks around this idea gained traction earlier this spring but were suspended after Trump imposed steep new tariffs on Chinese imports, sparking another round of tensions that stalled any immediate path forward.
The investor group still includes heavyweights such as KKR, Andreessen Horowitz, and Oracle, which has long expressed interest in a stake. However, it is unclear whether these firms remain committed following Blackstone’s withdrawal. One source close to the matter said several investors are “reassessing their positions” amid growing uncertainty over the structure of the deal and whether China would approve it at all.
For TikTok, the stakes are enormous. The app remains wildly popular in the U.S., with over 150 million users, but its long-term future in the market now hinges on a political resolution. ByteDance, which generated $43 billion in revenue in Q1 2025, recently surpassed Meta in quarterly earnings, according to Reuters. Yet the company may be forced to relinquish one of its most valuable global assets—or risk losing access to the U.S. market entirely.
In the meantime, TikTok is said to be developing a U.S.-specific version of the app, an effort to ringfence its American operations from Chinese oversight. However, with the deal’s structure still in flux and Blackstone’s exit raising questions about investor confidence, the app’s future remains anything but certain.
While Trump has continued to maintain that a sale will happen, Blackstone’s withdrawal reinforces what many observers already suspect: the TikTok deal is stalled, and its fate is now tangled in a web of politics, trade warfare, and deepening investor doubt.