What’s really happening with TikTok in the US?
Here’s what you should know about the US TikTok deal
For the past four years, TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese corporation ByteDance, has been the subject of debate in the United States because of worries that the Chinese government could be able to access user data.
Because of this, American users have frequently been caught in the midst of this conflict. Millions of users were held in suspense after the app's brief outage in the United States earlier this year before it was promptly restored. In February, TikTok made a comeback to the Google Play Store and App Store.
After Trump extended the TikTok ban deadline for the fourth time, the competition between several investors to buy the app is now over. Last week, TikTok formally agreed to sell a chunk of its U.S. business to a group of American investors.
This occurs over three months after an executive order authorizing the sale of TikTok's US business to an American investment group was approved by President Donald Trump.
A week earlier, President Trump declared that Chinese President Xi Jinping had approved a deal with TikTok that would hand control of the platform to a group of American investors. In a public statement, ByteDance promised to keep the platform accessible to users in the United States.
Who owns TikTok in the U.S.?
Oracle, investment firm MGX, and private equity firm Silver Lake make up the investor group, according to a memo that TechCrunch was able to access. Together, they will control 45% of the U.S. business, with ByteDance retaining about 20%. TikTok U.S. is estimated to be worth about $14 billion, according to sources cited by Axios, which broke the story first. Vice President JD Vance also mentioned this amount.
A "framework" agreement between the United States and China was reportedly reached in September, with a group of investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake, and Andreessen Horowitz, managing TikTok's U.S. operations. It was anticipated that these investors would own 80% of the company, with Chinese stakeholders holding the remaining shares.
The app's operations, including data security, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurance, will be managed by the recently established "TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC."
According to the memo, Oracle will be the reliable security partner in charge of auditing and guaranteeing adherence to National Security Terms. The business currently handles user data in the United States and offers cloud services for TikTok. Notably, in 2020, Oracle attempted to acquire TikTok.
The U.S.-based TikTok owners may lease the algorithm from ByteDance, which Oracle would then retrain, according to a White House official who earlier stated that Oracle would duplicate and secure a new U.S. version of the algorithm.
ByteDance won't have any control over the U.S. algorithm or access to data regarding TikTok's American users.
The closing date of the agreement is set for January 22, 2026.
What users in the U.S. should know
According to reports from Bloomberg, users will have to switch to a new platform since the TikTok app will be discontinued in the United States once the deal is finalized. The platform's features and how it would be different from the original app are still mostly unknown, though.
How did we arrive here?
We'll first go over the chronology of TikTok's turbulent relationship with the US government, which led to numerous court cases and talks, in order to completely comprehend this high-stakes drama.
When Trump signed an executive order prohibiting dealings with parent company ByteDance in August 2020, the drama started.
A month later, Trump's administration attempted to compel TikTok to sell its US operations to a US-based business. Walmart, Oracle, and Microsoft were among the top competitors. However, Trump's executive order was momentarily stopped by a U.S. judge, allowing TikTok to carry on with business as the legal dispute progressed.
After the Biden administration took office last year, things started to go forward even more. President Joe Biden signed the legislation against TikTok after it was approved by the Senate.
In response, TikTok filed a lawsuit against the US government, saying that the app and its American users' First Amendment rights were being violated and contesting the validity of the ban. Asserting that its data held in the United States complies with all local rules, the corporation has continuously denied that it presents a security risk.
Today, Trump is attempting to reach a 50/50 ownership arrangement between ByteDance and a U.S. corporation after having a change of heart since his first term.
The People's Bid for TikTok, a group led by Frank McCourt, the founder of Project Liberty, is one of the competitors. Guggenheim Securities, an investing firm, and Kirkland & Ellis, a legal firm, are supporting this organization. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, TV personality and investor Kevin O'Leary, World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee, and senior research scientist David Clark are among the supporters.
Roblox co-founder David Baszucki, Anchorage Digital co-founder Nathan McCauley, and well-known YouTuber MrBeast are members of another group, the American Investor Consortium, which is headed by Jesse Tinsley, the creator of Employer.com.
Amazon, AppLovin, Microsoft, Perplexity AI, Rumble, Walmart, Zoop, former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin were among the other contenders.
After publication, the story was revised.
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