The long running fight over TikTok’s future in the United States has finally produced a concrete answer: a new American led joint venture is taking control of the app’s U.S. business, while its Beijing based parent, ByteDance, recedes into a minority role. The result is not a clean break so much as a carefully engineered power sharing arrangement that shifts ownership, governance, and data while trying to keep the product familiar for users. At its core, the question of who is really buying TikTok’s U.S. arm comes down to a small group of powerful technology, private equity, and sovereign wealth players who now sit between Washington and one of the country’s most influential social platforms.
For TikTok’s more than 200 m U.S. users, the app is not disappearing, but the corporate chart behind it has been redrawn to satisfy national security hawks without killing a cultural phenomenon. I see three big threads that matter now: which investors actually control the new entity, how much influence ByteDance and Chinese stakeholders still retain, and whether the promised safeguards around data and algorithms are likely to answer the concerns that drove this forced sale in the first place.
Meet the new TikTok US: Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX
The centerpiece of the restructuring is a new joint venture that carves out TikTok’s American operations into a majority American owned company. Reporting on the deal describes a buyer group anchored by U.S. tech giant Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Emirati investment firm MGX, a structure that earlier term sheets suggested would collectively control 45% of the new U.S. vehicle alongside other American investors. One memo cited by Fortune described Oracle, Silver Lake, and the Emirati state owned MGX each holding 15% stakes, a breakdown that was later echoed when TikTok confirmed that Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX would be core shareholders in the new American venture. A separate analysis citing Axios said the joint venture would be owned 45% by Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi based MGX, while ByteDance itself would retain a 19.9% stake, a structure that underscores how central this trio is to the new ownership bloc.
These investors are not just financial sponsors, they are the answer to the political demand that TikTok’s U.S. business move into non Chinese hands. TikTok’s owner has closed a deal to sell a portion of its U.S. assets to a consortium that includes Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX, according to one detailed breakdown of who’s buying the U.S. business. Another summary of what TikTok’s owner agreed to stresses that the same trio, Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX, are the core of the buyer group, reinforcing that this is not a diffuse retail shareholder base but a tight consortium with deep ties to U.S. capital markets and, in Oracle’s case, to President Trump ally Larry Ellison, who has long been vocal about bringing the app under American control, as highlighted in coverage of the $14 billion deal that allowed TikTok to avoid a ban.
ByteDance steps back, but not out
For all the focus on the new American investors, ByteDance is not disappearing from the picture. Earlier this week TikTok said that its Chinese owner, ByteDance, had struck a deal with a group of non Chinese investors to create a new American entity, a structure that keeps the Chinese parent involved while loosening its grip on the U.S. arm. One detailed breakdown of the transaction notes that now ByteDance will own less than 20% of the new entity, with the rest of it falling into non Chinese ownership, a shift that is designed to satisfy U.S. lawmakers who have spent years warning about the influence of a Chinese parent over American user data. Another analysis of the same deal reiterates that ByteDance’s stake is capped at 19.9% of the joint venture, a figure that appears in both Axios based summaries and in descriptions of the Oracle led group that is taking over the U.S. operations.
That minority stake still matters, because it preserves economic upside for ByteDance and leaves open questions about how much influence it can exert over product decisions and the algorithm that powers TikTok’s feed. One policy focused analysis by Peter Gordon notes that on January 22, 2026, TikTok formally announced the establishment of the TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, a structure that is meant to wall off U.S. data and operations from the Chinese parent but that still leaves ByteDance as a significant shareholder in the USDS Joint Venture LLC. Another piece on what you should know about the U.S. TikTok deal underscores that over the years U.S. officials have pushed for a clean break from Chinese ownership, and that now ByteDance’s sub 20% stake is a political compromise rather than a full divestiture, a point that is echoed in commentary that ByteDance and its Chinese parent ByteDance Ltd. have closed a deal to transfer parts of their U.S. operations into a new American venture with a majority American board, while keeping a minority economic interest in the business, as described in one deal summary.
Inside the investor consortium and its foreign ties
Looking more closely at the investor roster reveals that the new TikTok US is not purely a domestic story, even if it is majority American owned. MGX, one of the three anchor shareholders, was founded by Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, and G42, an Emirati A.I. company, and its chief executive has been profiled as a key power broker in the new structure, according to a detailed breakdown of who is in of the new entity. Another summary of the divestment notes that Oracle, Silver Lake, and the Emirati state owned MGX will each own 15% stakes of the venture, and that TikTok’s Beijing based parent will remain a minority shareholder alongside existing ByteDance investors, a reminder that Abu Dhabi and Emirati capital are now embedded in the governance of one of America’s most widely used apps.
Additional investors in the consortium, including other private equity backers, are also expected to hold smaller stakes, but the core voting power will sit with Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX, as described in multiple rundowns of the consortium. One investor focused analysis of the U.S. TikTok deal notes that a number of investors competed to be part of the transaction, but that the final structure concentrated ownership among Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX, with ByteDance and other existing shareholders rolling into the new entity. Another breakdown of what we know about who is buying TikTok’s U.S. business reiterates that TikTok’s owner has closed a deal to sell a portion of its U.S. assets to a consortium that includes Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX, and that this group will effectively control the new U.S. platform, even as ByteDance and other investors retain minority positions, a balance that reflects both geopolitical pressure and the commercial value of the app.
What changes for users, data and Washington
For everyday users, the most immediate impact is that TikTok is not going dark in the United States. One detailed explainer notes that for TikTok’s more than 200 m U.S. users, the immediate takeaway is simple, the app is here to stay, and that the agreement is not expected to change the core experience in the short term, aside from new disclosures about data handling and governance, as described in coverage of the finalized deal. Another report on the same agreement emphasizes that TikTok’s U.S. operations have officially changed hands, with a consortium led by Silver Lake, Oracl and other investors taking control, and that a new U.S. based CEO has been appointed to run the platform, a move meant to signal that decisions about content moderation, product features, and partnerships will be made on American soil, as outlined in the new leadership.
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