TikTok announced on Thursday that it had closed a deal to establish a new US entity, allowing it to sidestep a ban and ending a long legal battle. The deal, finalised by ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, sets up a majority American-owned venture, with investors including Larry Ellison’s Oracle, the private-equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX owning 80.1% of the new entity, while ByteDance will own 19.9%.
The announcement comes five years after Donald Trump first threatened to ban the popular platform in the US during his first term. TikTok’s future in the US had been unclear, a saga that began after Congress overwhelmingly voted to pass a law banning the social media app in 2024 unless it found a US buyer. The Supreme Court upheld the law in January 2025, but on Trump’s first day in office, he signed an executive order postponing the ban.
Adam Presser, who previously served as TikTok’s general manager and global head of operations and trust & safety, will serve as CEO of the new venture. The US joint venture is overseen by a seven-member board of directors, including executives from Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX, a senior advisor to TPG, and Shou Zi Chew, TikTok’s chief executive.
The US entity will operate under defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurances for US users. The content recommendation algorithm will be retrained, tested and updated based on US user data. Under the arrangement, Oracle will oversee the algorithm that recommends videos to US users.
A White House official said the Chinese and US governments had signed off on the deal. In a post on social media, Trump thanked China’s president, Xi Jinping, for working with the US and ultimately approving the deal. Silver Lake, Oracle and MGX will each hold 15% in the new venture, with the investment firm of Michael Dell also an investor.
