On January 22, 2026, TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance closed a deal that moved parts of TikTok’s US operations into a new American-led company, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC. The deal was intended to avoid a nationwide ban on the app in the United States.
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Oracle, the private equity firm Silver Lake and the Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX are the managing investors, and each holds a 15% stake. ByteDance keeps a 19.9% stake. Other investors, including the Dell Family Office and Susquehanna International Group, also took stakes. Elon Musk is not among the named investors.
What changes for users
Oracle will host US user data in its cloud environment. The joint venture will retrain TikTok’s recommendation algorithm on US user data and is responsible for content moderation for US users. The new entity will continue to license the algorithm from ByteDance before retraining and reviewing it, according to CNN.
The value of the deal
Vice President JD Vance has said the new US venture is valued at about $14 billion. The deal was first announced in December 2025 under an executive order signed by President Trump in September 2025.
Editor’s note: an earlier version of this article, written in January 2025, was speculation about a sale to Elon Musk. That sale was not the deal that closed, and the speculation has been removed.
Sources
- ABC News, TikTok finalizes deal to form new US entity (23 January 2026): https://abc30.com/post/tiktok-finalizes-deal-keep-operating-us/18451438/
- Reuters via Free Malaysia Today, TikTok seals deal to create US venture with Oracle, Silver Lake (23 January 2026): https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/business/2026/01/23/tiktok-seals-deal-to-create-us-venture-with-oracle-silver-lake
- CNN via ABC17, The deal to secure TikTok’s future in the US has finally closed (January 2026): https://abc17news.com/?p=1589183
- MacRumors, TikTok avoids US ban as joint venture deal officially closes (23 January 2026): https://www.macrumors.com/2026/01/23/tiktok-avoids-us-ban-deal-officially-closes/