TikTok just pulled off one of the most dramatic corporate restructurings in tech history. The company's Chinese parent ByteDance finalized a deal to create a majority American-owned joint venture that will operate the social app in the U.S., ending a six-year political standoff that threatened to shut down the platform for 170 million American users. The arrangement hands operational control to a consortium led by Oracle, private equity giant Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi's MGX investment firm, each taking a 15% stake in the new entity.
ByteDance just rewrote the playbook on how foreign tech companies navigate U.S. national security concerns. The Chinese internet giant finalized a joint venture deal that transforms TikTok into a majority American-owned operation, sidestepping what seemed like an inevitable federal ban that had 170 million U.S. users bracing for the app's disappearance.
The newly formed TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC represents a remarkable compromise in a standoff that's consumed Washington since 2020. Oracle, the cloud infrastructure provider that's been TikTok's technical partner for years, now steps into a managing investor role alongside private equity powerhouse Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi's MGX investment firm. Each of the three managing investors holds a 15% stake, with additional investors including Michael Dell's family investment firm rounding out the American ownership structure.
Adam Presser, who previously ran TikTok's operations and trust and safety divisions, takes the helm as CEO of the joint venture. TikTok CEO Shou Chew remains involved as a director, preserving some continuity with ByteDance while the app operates under what the company describes as "defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurances for U.S. users," according to .
