TikTok Continues Operations in US as New Joint Venture

TikTok will continue to operate in the United States as a new, majority American-owned joint venture called TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC.

The joint venture has three managing investors—Silver Lake, Oracle and MGX—each of which holds 15%, it said in a Thursday (Jan. 22) press release. Its China-based former owner ByteDance retains 19.9% of the joint venture, with the remainder of the stakes in the joint venture being held by a consortium of other investors.

TikTok USDC Joint Venture is designed to protect U.S. national security and comply with President Donald Trump’s Sept. 25 executive order through data privacy and cybersecurity measures, robust trust and safety policies, content moderation, transparent reporting and third-party certifications, according to the release.

TikTok global’s U.S. entities will manage global product interoperability, ensuring a global experience for U.S. users, creators and businesses, the release said. Those entities will also manage eCommerce, advertising and marketing, per the release.

Trump said in a Thursday post on Truth Social that with the help of Vice President JD Vance, others in the administration, and China’s President Xi Jinping, the TikTok deal was brought to a “very dramatic, final and beautiful conclusion.”

“I am so happy to have helped in saving TikTok,” Trump said in the post. “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.”

Former President Joe Biden signed a law in April 2024 that gave ByteDance 12 months to sell its stake in the company or risk the social media platform being shut down. Supporters of the law had argued that the threat of a ban was necessary for national security concerns.

Trump said in a Jan. 19, 2025, post on Truth Social, on the day before he returned to the White House, that he would sign an executive extending the ban deadline and that there would be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark.

His Sept. 25 executive order set the terms of a deal to move control of TikTok’s American operations into U.S. hands.