TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, announced it has finalized a deal to create a majority American-owned joint venture called TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC to operate the platform in the United States. This move comes after years of political and legal battles over national security concerns tied to TikTok’s Chinese ownership concerns that led Congress to pass a law in 2024 requiring ByteDance to divest its U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban.
Under the agreement, American and global investors will control 80.1 % of the joint venture, while ByteDance retains the remaining 19.9 %, keeping its stake just below the legal ownership cap established by U.S. regulators. Major backers of the venture include cloud computing giant Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based AI investment fund MGX, each holding significant portions of the new company. The structure is designed to address concerns about data privacy and national security by placing U.S. user data, app operations, and algorithm oversight under American control and security protocols.
The joint venture will be led by U.S. executives: Adam Presser was appointed CEO and a former TikTok executive serves as chief security officer, while TikTok’s global CEO Shou Chew joins the board. Oracle will host U.S. user data on its cloud infrastructure and help retrain the recommendation algorithm using American data, an important step aimed at ensuring the platform’s operations comply with federal standards.
The deal has drawn both praise and criticism. Supporters including political leaders who have long clashed with TikTok say the arrangement preserves the app’s status in the U.S. and protects data security. However, some lawmakers, like Senator Ed Markey, have raised concerns about transparency and whether the structure truly eliminates foreign influence, calling for further congressional investigation into the specifics of the agreement.
After years of uncertainty including legal challenges, regulatory threats, and shifting deadlines this joint venture offers TikTok a path forward in the U.S. market, ensuring continued access for millions of users, creators, and businesses that rely on the platform.