TikTok U.S. Joint Venture Deal Set to Close in January With Investors Including Oracle, Silver Lake

TikTok is nearly to the finish line in the video app’s long trek to becoming legal in the U.S.

ByteDance and TikTok have signed “binding agreements” with three managing investors: Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s state-owned investment firm MGX, to form a new TikTok U.S. joint venture named TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, according to a memo to TikTok staff by CEO Shou Zi Chew reviewed by Variety. The agreement forming the TikTok U.S. joint venture is set to close Jan. 22, 2026.

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The TikTok U.S. joint venture will be 50% held by a consortium of new investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX with 15% each; 30.1% held by affiliates of certain existing investors of ByteDance; and 19.9% will be retained by ByteDance.

With the deal, ByteDance and TikTok will — after nearly a year in legal limbo — come into compliance with the U.S.’s TikTok divest-or-ban law, which prohibits distribution in the U.S. of any app that is more than 20% owned by a “foreign adversary” (in this case, China).

The U.S. law passed last year with overwhelming bipartisan support among lawmakers, concerned that ByteDance’s ties to China made TikTok a national security threat because of the risk of spying on Americans or manipulating content in the app. The law went into effect Jan. 19, 2025. However, President Trump has issued five executive orders this year that delayed enforcement of the ban by the Justice Department while the administration tried to broke a deal to transfer ownership to U.S.-based investors.

The agreements specify that the U.S. joint venture will be majority-owned by U.S. investors, governed by a new seven-member majority-American board of directors, and subject to terms “designed to protect Americans’ data and U.S. national security,” per the memo.

One important element of the TikTok U.S. JV agreement concerns the app’s content algorithm: The new entity will be responsible for “retraining the content-recommendation algorithm on U.S. user data to ensure the content feed is free from outside manipulation,” according to Chew’s memo.

“I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued dedication and tireless work,” Chew wrote in the memo. “Your efforts keep us operating at the highest level and will ensure that TikTok continues to grow and thrive in the U.S. and around the world. With these agreements in place, our focus must stay where it’s always been — firmly on delivering for our users, creators, businesses and the global TikTok community.”

On Sept. 25, Trump signed an executive order that approved the formation of the joint venture and the sale of ownership stakes to non-Chinese investors. According to U.S. VP JD Vance, the agreement valued TikTok U.S. at $14 billion.

Trump claimed that tech mogul Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch are among the investors in the TikTok U.S. venture, but their participation has not been otherwise confirmed.

Oracle, founded by Trump supporter Larry Ellison, already provides data and computing services for TikTok’s U.S. operations. Current ByteDance investors including venture-capital firms Susquehanna International, KKR and General Atlantic are also part of the ownership group.

According to Trump’s executive order, the new TikTok U.S. joint venture will encompass not only the TikTok app but also ByteDance’s Lemon8 and CapCut applications, as well as “any other application or website duly operated by the new joint venture, and their associated or affiliated websites.” The Trump administration’s non-enforcement of the law was extended until Jan. 23, 2026, more than a year after the TikTok divest-or-ban legislation went into effect.

Trump, in the final months of his first administration, tried unsuccessfully to ban TikTok unless its ownership was transferred to U.S. companies, also over national security concerns. After he won the 2024 election, Trump said, “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” because “there are those who say” the app helped drive support for him among young voters.

Read the full memo from Chew:

Update on our U.S. business
I am pleased to share some great news. We have signed agreements with investors regarding a new TikTok U.S. joint venture, enabling over 170 million Americans to continue discovering a world of endless possibilities as part of a vital global community. 

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued dedication and tireless work. Your efforts keep us operating at the highest level and will ensure that TikTok continues to grow and thrive in the U.S. and around the world. 

With these agreements in place, our focus must stay where it’s always been—firmly on delivering for our users, creators, businesses and the global TikTok community. 

There’s more work to be done as we move towards the closing date of January 22, 2026. Within this timeframe, we will continue to update you on the process and other details. 

In the meantime, I have outlined key terms of the agreements below. 

Shou

———–

ByteDance and TikTok have signed binding agreements with three managing investors, Oracle Corporation, Silver Lake, and MGX, to form a new TikTok U.S. joint venture named TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC. Pursuant to the Executive Order signed by U.S. President Donald J. Trump on September 25, 2025, the agreements specify that the U.S. joint venture will be majority owned by American investors, governed by a new seven-member majority-American board of directors, and subject to terms that protect Americans’ data and U.S. national security. 

Specifically, the U.S. joint venture will be 50% held by a consortium of new investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX with 15% each; 30.1% held by affiliates of certain existing investors of ByteDance; and 19.9% will be retained by ByteDance. 

Through comprehensive security measures, more than 170 million Americans will continue to discover, create, and connect on the platform, enjoying the same experience as today. Advertisers will continue to connect with global audiences with no impact. 

The U.S. joint venture will be responsible for U.S. data protection, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurance. It will also have the exclusive right and authority to provide assurances that content, software, and data for American users is secure. A trusted security partner will be responsible for auditing and validating compliance with the agreed upon National Security Terms, and Oracle will be the trusted security partner upon completion of the transaction. 

The U.S. joint venture will oversee: 

• Data Protection: safeguarding sensitive U.S. user data, which will be stored in a trusted and secure cloud environment in the United States run by Oracle.
• Algorithm Security: retraining the content recommendation algorithm on U.S. user data to ensure the content feed is free from outside manipulation.
• Content Moderation: ultimate decision-making authority for reviewing and approving all content moderation and related policies within the United States.
• Software Assurance: deployment and integrity of the U.S. application software and platform.

The transaction will be completed no later than 120 days from the date of the Executive Order. Upon the closing, the U.S. joint venture, built on the foundation of the current TikTok U.S. Data Security (USDS) organization, will operate as an independent entity with authority over U.S. data protection, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurance, while TikTok global’s U.S. entities will manage global product interoperability and certain commercial activities, including e-commerce, advertising, and marketing.