TikTok announced Thursday the successful conclusion of a transformative deal that establishes a new majority American-owned company, effectively sidestepping a federal ban that threatened to shut down its US operations. The agreement brings an end to five years of regulatory pressure and legal challenges surrounding the popular video platform.
Under the finalized ownership arrangement, ByteDance’s stake in the American TikTok entity drops to 19.9%, while US-based investors command 80.1% of the company. The ownership structure features three equal major partners, each holding 15%: Oracle, led by technology billionaire Larry Ellison; Silver Lake, a leading private equity firm specializing in technology sector investments; and MGX, an investment fund from Abu Dhabi. Michael Dell’s investment firm provides additional American capital to the ownership consortium.
This settlement addresses bipartisan legislation enacted in 2024 that effectively banned TikTok unless it divested from Chinese ownership within a specified timeframe. The law reflected widespread concern among policymakers about potential national security vulnerabilities, including unauthorized data access by foreign governments and algorithmic manipulation of content. The Supreme Court affirmed the ban’s constitutionality in January 2025, after which President Trump used executive powers to postpone enforcement during ongoing negotiations.
Leadership of the American entity will be entrusted to Adam Presser, who brings institutional knowledge from his previous senior positions managing global operations and trust and safety functions for TikTok. Governance will be exercised by a seven-member board of directors, deliberately designed with an American majority and populated by professionals with backgrounds in cybersecurity and national security. Current TikTok CEO Shou Chew will participate as a board member.
The restructured company commits to operating with comprehensive safeguards specifically designed for American users, including advanced data protection systems, algorithm security measures, robust content moderation capabilities, and software integrity protocols. A key element involves completely retraining the platform’s content recommendation algorithm using only US user data, with continuous testing and refinement to ensure it operates independently from foreign systems. Both the US and Chinese governments have signed off on the deal, with President Trump publicly thanking Chinese President Xi Jinping for approving the arrangement, which provides certainty for the platform’s millions of American users.