TikTok establishes US joint venture to comply with executive order

On Thursday, January 22, 2026, TikTok announced the official establishment of the TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC. The new entity was created to comply with a presidential executive order requiring the sale of its U.S. operations. Under the agreement, TikTok will divest—which means selling off a portion of a business—its U.S. entity, a process that began when TikTok officially signed a deal to divest a portion of its U.S. entity in December 2025. Under this structure, ByteDance will retain less than 20% ownership of the new U.S. entity, with the remaining 80% falling under non-Chinese ownership. TikTok, owned by ByteDance, has been at the center of controversy in the U.S. for years now due to concerns about user data potentially being accessed by the Chinese government. The company has consistently denied that it poses a security threat.

The transaction values TikTok U.S. at approximately $14 billion, according to reports. The ownership breakdown of the remaining 80% non-Chinese stake in the TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is structured as follows:

• Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX each hold 15% of the U.S. operation, representing a 45% collective stake, with Silver Lake and MGX acting as managing investors.
• Other investors hold another 35% of the venture’s ownership.

According to a memo, Oracle will serve as the trusted security partner responsible for auditing and ensuring compliance with National Security Terms. Under the terms of the joint venture, ByteDance will not have access to information about TikTok’s U.S. users or influence over the algorithm. This resolution follows a series of legal battles, which began in August 2020 when Donald Trump signed an executive order to ban transactions with ByteDance. Despite these challenges, the platform’s 200 million American TikTok users will experience minimal immediate change; reports indicate that U.S. users will not need to download a new app. This follows a period where the app was temporarily unavailable before TikTok returned to the App Store and Google Play Store on February 2, 2025.

Why it matters

The establishment of the TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC marks the formal divestment of TikTok’s U.S. operations to an American investor group, effectively ending years of regulatory pressure and uncertainty regarding data security.