ByteDance Announces U.S. TikTok Deal; Creation of American TikTok Joint Venture
After over a year of limbo since the first ban should have gone into effect, TikTok seems to be saved for U.S. users under a new U.S.-majority-owned joint venture between ByteDance and several American investors.
Written by Jackie Leavitt (Editor at Large)
Reviewed by Aleksander Hougen (Chief Editor)
Last Updated:
TikTok announced on Jan. 23, 2026, the finalization of a U.S. deal that could allow the social media platform and other apps to continue operation in the U.S. by meeting regulatory requirements. U.S. TikTok users will be able to continue using the same app without interruption.
On Truth Social, President Trump praised the new U.S. TikTok joint venture, thanking his administration, Vice President JD Vance, and President Xi of China, and saying “It will now be owned by a group of Great American Patriots and Investors, the Biggest in the World, and will be an important Voice.”
In the announcement, TikTok and owner ByteDance laid out how the deal would meet compliance with President Trump’s Executive Order signed on September 25, 2025, which required that the U.S. TikTok be:
- Operated by a newly established joint venture based in the U.S.,
- Restrict ByteDance’s ownership of the U.S. entity to 20%, with the majority being held by U.S. investors,
- Elect a new board of directors,
- Be subject to rules to protect U.S. national security and American’s data.
The new U.S. TikTok joint venture meets the framework deal made in September and the executive order requirements: ByteDance retains 19.9% ownership, while three managing investors would hold 15% each: Silver Lake, Oracle and MGX. The remaining 35.1% ownership would include Dell Family Office; Vastmere Strategic Investments, LLC; Alpha Wave Partners; Revolution; Merritt Way, LLC; Via Nova; Virgo Ll, Inc.; and NJJ Capital.
A seven-member, majority-American board of directors for the joint venture includes: Shou Chew, the CEO of TikTok; Timothy Dattels, senior advisor to TPG Global; Mark Dooley, managing director at Susquehanna International Group; Egon Durban, co-CEO of Silver Lake; Raul Fernadez, president and CEO of DXC Technology; Kenneth Glueck, executive vice president in the office of the CEO at Oracle; and David Scott, chief strategy and safety officer at MGX.
Leading the new U.S. TikTok joint venture is Adam Presser, the new CEO, and Will Farrell, the new chief security officer — both worked within TikTok prior to the joint venture.
The TikTok announcement also outlined how it would meet national security requirements. For data protection, U.S. user data will be protected by Oracle’s secure U.S. cloud environment, with a data privacy and cybersecurity program audited by third-party cybersecurity experts. It would also adhere to industry standards, such as NIST CSF, 800-53, ISO 27001, and secure apps through software assurance protocols, reviewed and validated by Oracle Cloud.
The TikTok U.S. joint venture will also retrain, test and update the content recommendation algorithm for U.S. users, and secure the algorithm within Oracle Cloud.
The original TikTok ban originated from the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), which made it illegal to distribute, maintain, or update an application controlled by a foreign adversary, including China, Iran, North Korea and Russia. PAFACA would have gone into effect on Jan. 19, 2025, but President Trump offered multiple extensions to encourage a deal and allow 200 million U.S. users to keep using ByteDance’s apps.
Other ByteDance apps affected by PAFACA included CapCut and Lemon8. According to TikTok’s statement, it expects the safeguards created by the joint venture would also protect these other apps in the U.S.
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