TikTok finalizes deal for its US entity

After years of uncertainty about TikTok’s future in the US, a deal for the app’s US business has been completed. The new US entity is called the TikTok USDS Joint Venture. ByteDance has retained a 19.9% ​​stake in the new business, while the rest is controlled by a group of non-Chinese investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX, a UAE state-owned investment firm, all of which hold a 15% stake. Dell CEO Michael Dell and other investors have smaller stakes in the new company.

Terms of the deal were first leaked last month, after TikTok CEO Shou Chew told employees in a memo that TikTok and ByteDance had agreed on a combination of investors. This ends a long saga and months of slow progress while the agreement was being drafted, ensuring that the app remains available in the United States after years of being on the verge of being banned in the country.

president Donald Trump, who tried to ban the app during his first term in office, praised the deal in a post on Truth Social. “It will now be owned by a group of great American patriots and investors, the largest in the world, and will be an important voice. I only hope that those who use and love TikTok will remember me long into the future,” he wrote.

According to TikTok’s announcement, the joint venture will protect US users’ data with Oracle’s secure US cloud environment. It will also retrain TikTok’s algorithm on US users’ data and will be responsible for moderating content in the US. The entity also promises interoperability, promising that users will continue to get international content, and viewers if they are content creators. “The guarantees provided by the joint venture will also cover CapCut, Lemon8 and a range of other apps and sites in the United States,” TikTok said.

The new entity will be supervised by a board of directors consisting of seven members, most of whom are Americans. They include TikTok CEO Xu Qiu, Silver Lake co-CEO Egon Durban, Oracle executive vice president Kenneth Gluck, and MGX chief strategy and safety officer David Scott. Adam Presser, who was previously head of operations, trust and safety at TikTok, is CEO of the TikTok USDS joint venture.

It’s unclear exactly what the new joint venture means for TikTok users in the US. Shortly after the deal was announced, TikTok introduced new terms of service for users in the United States. as BBC It notes that the new terms include provisions regarding use of the app by children under the age of 13 (limited to the “under 13 experience”) and that “the TikTok USDS Joint Venture does not endorse any content” in the app. The company did not announce specific changes to the app’s algorithm or other core features.

Updated January 23, 2026 at 10:58 AM PT: This post has been updated to add a statement from President Trump, and with additional information about TikTok’s new terms of service.