TikTok has reached an agreement to sell its U.S. operations to a consortium of American investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX, allowing the platform to continue its presence in the United States. The transaction is slated for completion by January 22. According to an internal memo, CEO Shou Zi Chew confirmed that ByteDance and TikTok have entered into binding agreements with these investors.
The newly formed U.S. joint venture will see an investor consortium, which includes Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX, collectively owning 50% of the entity, with each of these three holding a 15% stake. An additional 30.1% will be held by affiliates of existing ByteDance investors, while ByteDance, based in China, will retain a 19.9% ownership. This new venture will be governed by a majority-American, seven-member board of directors and will operate under terms designed to safeguard American data and national security.
Key operational aspects will be managed domestically: U.S. user data will be stored locally on an Oracle-powered system, and TikTok's renowned algorithm will be retrained using U.S. user data to prevent external manipulation of the content feed. The U.S. venture will also be responsible for content moderation and policy implementation within the country. This deal resolves years of uncertainty surrounding TikTok's future in the U.S., particularly following a law that mandated its sale by a January 2025 deadline if ByteDance remained the owner. The situation had seen several executive orders and extensions under the Trump administration, with previous sale attempts faltering, notably when China withdrew its support after a U.S. tariff announcement.