Washington: TikTok has announced a definitive agreement with American and global investors to reorganize its U.S. operations in a move designed to prevent a federal ban tied to concerns over its Chinese ownership, reported Reuters.
The deal establishes a new company, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, that will be majority-owned by non-Chinese investors and manage TikTok’s operations for more than 200 million U.S. users and millions of U.S. businesses.
American and global investors will hold approximately 80.1% of the new entity, with ByteDance—the Chinese parent of TikTok—retaining a 19.9% stake.
Major managing investors include Oracle Corporation, Silver Lake Management LLC, and MGX (an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm).
The joint venture will have primary responsibility for protecting U.S. user data, securing the recommendation algorithm, and enforcing content moderation and privacy safeguards. Critical systems will be hosted within secure U.S. cloud infrastructure overseen by Oracle.
Leadership and Governance
The new U.S. entity has appointed a majority-American executive team and board: Adam Presser as CEO and Will Farrell as Chief Security Officer.
TikTok’s global CEO, Shou Chew, will join the board. These governance arrangements are intended to demonstrate compliance with U.S. national security requirements while maintaining operational independence from ByteDance’s China-based leadership.
The agreement ends a protracted political conflict that began in August 2020, when then-President Donald Trump first sought to ban TikTok over concerns it could share U.S. data with the Chinese government—a claim TikTok has denied.
In 2024, the U.S. Congress passed legislation requiring TikTok to divest from ByteDance or face a ban. That law, upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, set deadlines that put the platform’s U.S. future in jeopardy unless a majority American ownership structure was finalized.
Efforts to negotiate such a deal, including multiple executive actions to delay enforcement of the ban, culminated in this newly announced agreement.
According to company statements and U.S. officials, the arrangement has received approval from both the White House and the Chinese government, clearing the way for TikTok’s continued operation in the U.S. market.
The deal is being described as a milestone for TikTok, allowing it to operate in the world’s largest digital advertising market while addressing longstanding national security and data privacy concerns.
