The widely popular social media application TikTok announced Thursday that it has finalized arrangements to create a new American-majority owned entity, successfully navigating around a federal prohibition that threatened to shut down its US operations. This landmark deal ends years of political and legal uncertainty for the platform and its millions of American users.
ByteDance, the technology conglomerate based in China that launched TikTok, has agreed to a corporate structure where it maintains only 19.9% ownership of the American operations. The controlling 80.1% stake will be divided among major American investors, with Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX each holding 15% of the company. Oracle brings cloud computing and database technology expertise, Silver Lake offers technology investment experience, and MGX represents investment capital from the United Arab Emirates.
The agreement follows congressional legislation enacted in 2024 that mandated TikTok separate from Chinese ownership or cease US operations due to national security considerations. Lawmakers and intelligence officials worried that the Chinese government could potentially compel ByteDance to surrender American user data or manipulate content algorithms. The Supreme Court affirmed the law’s constitutionality in early 2025, but President Trump exercised executive discretion to delay enforcement during ongoing negotiations.
The newly structured American TikTok will be led by Adam Presser as its chief executive, utilizing his institutional knowledge from previous leadership roles within the company. Corporate governance will be exercised through a seven-member board of directors, deliberately constructed with an American majority and populated by professionals with backgrounds in national security and cybersecurity. Shou Chew, who currently serves as TikTok’s global CEO, will join the board.
The company has outlined specific protective measures for the US version of the platform, including comprehensive data security protocols, algorithm safeguards, enhanced content moderation systems, and software integrity assurances. The recommendation algorithm that determines what content users see will undergo complete retraining based exclusively on American user behavior and preferences, with regular testing and updates to maintain independence from foreign systems. President Trump publicly thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping for approving the arrangement, which also received endorsement from the US government.