TikTok Creates Legal Entity to Eventually Maybe Possibly Sell to U.S. Investors (Don’t Call It a Done Deal)

A new entity has been created that will allow ByteDance to sell a majority stake in TikTok’s US operations to a group of investors outside China, according to new reports from the New York Times and Bloomberg. It brings the deal one step closer to completion, after years of uncertainty over whether the app would be banned in the US, although TikTok was quick to note that this is not a final deal to sell the company.

The entity will be called TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, according to a TikTok press release, and key investors include Oracle, Emirati investment firm MGX, and investment firm Silver Lake, which will own more than 80% of the company, according to The New York Times. Michael Dell is also participating, according to the Times.

The press release announcement notes that the new joint venture “will retrain, test, and update the content recommendation algorithm on US user data. The content recommendation algorithm will be secured in Oracle’s US cloud environment.” It’s not entirely clear what that means, but there are clearly concerns that Trump and the US government will manipulate the platform to make it more MAGA-friendly.

congress passed a bipartisan law in 2024, signed by President Joe Biden, that would require TikTok to be sold to US interests or banned in America due to national security concerns. The first sale/ban deadline was January 19, 2025, but President Trump extended that until April. Trump then signed an executive order extending it again until June. When June came, this was extended again until September. After this deadline passed, it was extended again to January 22.

Trump did not have the authority to continue extending the deadline, but he did so anyway, which seems to be the theme of this presidency. He initially tried to ban TikTok during his first term, but that was tied up in the courts and failed. Then Trump received 180 votes while campaigning for president in 2024, insisting that he loves TikTok because it is very popular among young people and he has a lot of supporters there who can help him win the election.

It’s entirely possible that this news is in many ways another fake news, given the fact that we’ve heard about a “perfect deal” multiple times since President Donald Trump’s second inauguration in January 2025. And back in October 2025, we heard the same thing. A month earlier, there was a big announcement that a “framework” for the deal had been reached.

When Gizmodo reached out to TikTok on Thursday after The New York Times first reported the news, our email asked about a final deal. “I saw your question and want to be clear that ‘sale deal’ is not an exact wording. Please see the language used in the press release,” a company spokesperson wrote.