TikTok has officially signed its Donald Trump-backed deal selling off its U.S. entity to a group of American investors. The deal establishes a “joint venture” with China, but based in the U.S., with a majority of U.S. investors and owners, and a majority of Americans sitting on its board of directors.
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Under a law passed last year, ByteDance, the China-based parent company of TikTok, was required to either sever ties with the social media platform’s American operations or lose access to U.S. app stores and web-hosting services.
The law gave a January 2025 deadline. However, President Donald Trump — who initially wanted to ban TikTok during his first term in 2020 — positioned himself as a hero with a cape, and repeatedly extended the ban’s deadline. He most recently extended the deadline until January 23, 2026.
Donald Trump Signs Executive Order Paving Way For TikTok Deal Involving U.S. Investors
In September 2025, President Trump signed an executive order making way for a deal brokered by his administration. The deal looks to keep TikTok operating in the U.S., but under a new corporate structure owned and overseen by American investors.
At the time, a senior White House official claimed that under the proposed deal, this new entity would copy ByteDance’s content recommendation algorithm on TikTok and run it solely on the data of its U.S. user base.
Furthermore, the deal taps cloud-computing firm Oracle as a “trusted security partner” to provide “top to bottom security.” The company will do so by hosting Americans’ user data and reviewing the app’s code to ensure “the algorithm is behaving appropriately and it’s secure.”
TikTok Officially Signs Donald Trump-Backed Deal Selling Off Its U.S. Entity To Group Of American Investors Including Oracle, Silver Lake, And MGX
On Thursday (December 18), Axios first reported the news of the deal becoming official. The publication shared that Oracle Corporation, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based MGX will collectively own 45% of the U.S. entity, 15% each. Current ByteDance investors will own nearly one-third of the new entity. The breakdown shows 19.9% retained by ByteDance and 30.1% held by affiliates of exiting ByteDance investors.
According to CNN, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew sent a memo to his employees. It in part read:
“We have signed agreements with investors regarding a new TikTok U.S. joint venture, enabling over 170 million Americans to continue discovering a world of endless possibilities as part of a vital global community.
Pursuant to the Executive Order signed by U.S. President Donald J. Trump on September 25, 2025, the agreements specify that the U.S. joint venture will be majority owned by American investors, governed by a new seven-member majority-American board of directors, and subject to terms that protect Americans’ data and U.S. national security. The U.S. joint venture will be responsible for U.S. data protection, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurance.”
In the memo, Chew continued to say that “there’s more work to be done” as they move towards the closing date of January 22, 2026.
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