TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, has finalised a major restructuring of its U.S. operations, creating a majority American-owned joint venture aimed at safeguarding U.S. user data.
The development comes after years of legal and political challenges, which threatened to ban the app for more than 200 million Americans.
The new entity, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, will house U.S. user data and algorithms under strict cybersecurity measures. American and global investors will hold 80.1% of the venture, leaving ByteDance with 19.9%.
Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based MGX are the managing investors, each with a 15% stake. TikTok’s U.S. data and recommendation algorithm will be hosted on Oracle’s U.S. cloud, allowing oversight while ByteDance continues to manage revenue-generating operations like advertising and e-commerce.
The venture’s leadership includes former TikTok USDS executives Adam Presser as CEO and Will Farrell as chief security officer. TikTok CEO Shou Chew joins the board to provide strategic guidance.
The JV will retrain and update TikTok’s content algorithm to ensure it operates solely on U.S. user data.
This deal results from the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, passed in April 2024. The law required ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. assets or face a nationwide ban, a provision upheld by the Supreme Court in January 2025.
Without the divestiture, TikTok risked removal from app stores and halted updates, which could have significantly weakened the platform’s U.S. presence.
The agreement received bipartisan attention. Former President Donald Trump, who first tried to ban the app in 2020 over national security concerns, praised the venture as “owned by a group of Great American Patriots and Investors.”
The White House confirmed that both U.S. and Chinese authorities signed off on the deal, although the Chinese Embassy in Washington has not yet commented publicly.
The joint venture is part of a U.S.-China technology rivalry. In separating U.S. user data and algorithms from ByteDance’s global operations, the structure aligns with earlier national security debates surrounding Chinese tech firms.
TikTok’s U.S. operations are effectively split, the venture oversees data and backend operations, while ByteDance maintains commercial operations, including e-commerce and advertising.
Investors include high-profile firms such as the Dell Family Office, Vastmere Strategic Investments, Alpha Wave Partners, Revolution, Merritt Way, Via Nova, Virgo LI, and NJJ Capital.
TikTok aims to comply with U.S. law and also to reassure users and regulators about data security while maintaining the app’s growth and influence in the U.S.
