A White House official said the US and China have finalized a deal to spin off TikTok’s US business to a consortium led by Oracle and Silver Lake, Fox Business reported Thursday. CNN reported the joint venture has been formally established and announced its leadership team.
The closing comes ahead of a January 23 deadline created by Trump’s September executive order, which set a 120-day enforcement pause on the divest-or-ban law.
What’s New
The joint venture has been formally established and announced its leadership team. TikTok said Adam Presser, previously the company’s head of operations and trust and safety, will be CEO. Will Farrell, who led privacy and security for the effort, will serve as Chief Security Officer.
TikTok CEO Shou Chew outlined the ownership structure in a December internal memo to employees after signing binding agreements with investors.
Under the new ownership structure, ByteDance retains just under 20% of the US business. Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX, an Abu Dhabi-based AI investment firm, will each hold 15% stakes. Other investors in the consortium include Susquehanna, Dragoneer, and DFO, Michael Dell’s family office.
A new seven-member board of directors with an American majority will govern the entity. The board will oversee data protection, content moderation, and algorithm security for US operations.
Vice President JD Vance said in September the deal would value TikTok’s US operations at roughly $14 billion, though the final amount ByteDance received remains unclear.
The algorithm question remains murky in public reporting. TikTok’s recommendation algorithm has been the central point of contention between the US and Chinese governments throughout the negotiations. The September executive order described US oversight of the technology, including requirements for algorithm retraining and monitoring, but specific implementation terms have not been publicly disclosed.
Background
The deal closes a chapter that spans two presidential administrations and multiple reversal points.
President Biden signed a law in 2024 requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok’s US business or face a ban. The Supreme Court upheld that law in 2025. TikTok briefly went dark two days later before President Trump, on his first day in office, signed an executive order keeping the app running while his administration negotiated a sale.
The current deal structure emerged from a framework announced in September, when the White House outlined terms that would create a US entity with majority American ownership while allowing ByteDance to maintain a minority stake.
Why This Matters
This should end more than five years of regulatory uncertainty for the 170 million Americans the White House says use TikTok and the businesses that depend on the platform for marketing and commerce.
We first covered the TikTok ban timeline when the original executive order gave ByteDance 45 days to sell in August 2020. Then it was a potential Oracle deal that looked promising before falling apart. The pattern repeated through multiple administrations, executive orders, and court cases.
For marketers who built strategies around TikTok, the resolution removes a persistent source of planning uncertainty. TikTok Shop, creator partnerships, and advertising campaigns can proceed without the backdrop of a potential shutdown.
The ownership structure also creates a new dynamic. Oracle, which already provides data and computing services for TikTok’s US operations through Project Texas, now holds an equity stake and board-level oversight. That deeper integration could affect how the platform handles data practices and content policies going forward.
Looking Ahead
TikTok’s US operations will function as an independent entity responsible for data protection, algorithm security, and content moderation.
TikTok has told employees that users and advertisers should see no immediate changes to the platform experience. Chew’s December memo indicated Americans would continue using TikTok as before and advertisers would maintain access to global audiences, according to multiple outlets that reviewed the document.
The deal removes a sticking point in US-China relations at a time when tensions remain elevated on trade and technology issues. Whether this model becomes a template for other Chinese-owned platforms operating in the US remains to be seen.
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