TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have reached a historic agreement against a backdrop of years-long geopolitical and corporate standoff, reaching an agreement with a coalition of American and global investors along the way. The agreement -- signed on January 22, 2026 officially establishes a new U.S.-based entity and removes a national ban threat that has threatened to be effective for over five years.
TikTok USDS
New American Joint Venture born The new deal creates a majority American-based unit known as TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC. The strategy aims to separate the U.S. headquarters of the app from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to counter decades-old national security concerns over data privacy and algorithmic manipulation.
Ownership Matrix
Some Perspective. ByteDance will relinquish control and will retain only a minority position in U.S. business, per the terms of the deal. “The Managing Investors” Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX (an Abu Dhabi-based AI investment firm) each own a 15 percent stake. Also notable American backers are Dell Family Office, Susquehanna and Dragoneer.
Security Protections and the ‘Oracle Cloud’ To appease U.S. regulators, the joint venture has introduced “defined safeguards” to protect the 200 million American users on the platform.
Data Sovereignty: Oracle’s cloud infrastructure in the US will house everything about U.S. users.
Algorithmic Independence
The content recommendation algorithm will be “retrained, tested, and updated” on U.S. user data stored in Oracle, in an effort to limit outside engagement. American Governance: The venture will be headed by CEO Adam Presser (former Head of Operations of TikTok), and by a seven-member, majority-American board of directors including cybersecurity specialists and national security experts.
A Long Road to Resolution
The deal tracks a rocky schedule that included a short TikTok blackout early in 2025. And when the Supreme Court initially upheld a federal ban law, President Donald Trump, on his first day on the presidency, signed an executive order that delayed the enforcement. And over the course of the past year, the White House, ByteDance and American investors pushed various rounds of extensions as they finalized the final terms of the deal.
