TikTok U.S. Joint Venture to Close in January
The sealed deal is backed by cloud giant Oracle, private equity powerhouse Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based AI investment firm MGX.
Summary
-
TikTok and ByteDance have signed binding agreements with Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX to form TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, with the deal set to finalize on January 22, 2026.
-
The new structure grants a consortium of American and international investors an 80.1% stake in the U.S. business, satisfying federal requirements for a “qualified divestiture” from Chinese ownership
-
Oracle will serve as the “trusted security partner,” hosting all U.S. user data and overseeing the retraining of the recommendation algorithm to ensure it is independent of outside influence
In a definitive resolution to years of regulatory uncertainty, TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have officially signed binding agreements to form a new American-led entity: TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC. According to an internal memo sent by CEO Shou Zi Chew on December 18, 2025, the landmark deal is scheduled to close on January 22, 2026, effectively averting a looming nationwide ban and bringing the platform into compliance with federal divestiture laws.
The joint venture is backed by a powerful consortium of “managing investors,” including cloud giant Oracle, private equity powerhouse Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based AI investment firm MGX. Under the new ownership structure, these three firms will each hold a 15% stake, totaling 45% of the new entity. Combined with the 30.1% held by affiliates of existing ByteDance investors, the venture will be 80.1% owned by non-Chinese entities, while ByteDance retains a minority 19.9% share.
The agreement places the future of TikTok’s U.S. operations under a new seven-member, majority-American board of directors. To address long-standing national security concerns, the joint venture will have exclusive authority over U.S. data protection, content moderation, and—crucially—algorithm security. The platform’s famed recommendation engine will be retrained on U.S. user data within a secure Oracle cloud environment, ensuring the feed remains free from foreign manipulation. For the app’s 170 million American users, this deal promises “business as usual,” securing the platform’s cultural and commercial presence for years to come.
