TikTok announced it has finalized its deal to spin off its U.S. joint venture operated by mostly American investors in a press release shared on Thursday (January 22).

"Today, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC has been established in compliance with the Executive Order signed by President [Donald] Trump on September 25, 2025, now enabling more than 200 million Americans and 7.5 million businesses to continue to discover, create, and thrive as part of TikTok's vibrant global community and experience," the press release states. "The majority American owned Joint Venture will operate under defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurances for U.S. users.

"TikTok USDS Joint Venture's mandate is to secure U.S. user data, apps and the algorithm through comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity measures. It will safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem through robust trust and safety policies and content moderation while ensuring continuous accountability through transparency reporting and third-party certifications."

The three managing investors involved with the deal are the American companies Oracle Corporation and Silver Lake, as well as MGX, which is based in the United Arab Emirates. The deal finally brings closure to the years-long saga over the popular Chinese social media app's status after Congress passed a law requiring it to be banned if its parent company, ByteDance, didn't sell its U.S. entity to Americans.

Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX will each have a 15% ownership stake in the new American entity, while ByteDance will retain 19.9% and 30.1% will be held by affiliates of its existing investors, the memo states. Oracle is co-founded by Larry Ellison, its largest shareholder, whose family also controls CBS through Paramount, which recently attempted to takeover Warner Bros. Discovery as part of a reportedly rejected hostile takeover deal.

Bret Saunders