TikTok completes US ownership overhaul, sells majority stake to non-Chinese investors

TikTok has completed a major restructuring of its United States operations, with parent company ByteDance finalising the sale of a controlling stake to a consortium of non-Chinese investors, clearing the way for the platform to continue operating in the country.

The deal was concluded just ahead of the Trump administration’s latest deadline, which would have seen TikTok banned in the US unless its ownership was separated from ByteDance. Under the agreement, ByteDance will retain a 20 per cent minority stake in a newly established US entity, while the remaining 80 per cent will be held by existing international investors.

Key shareholders in the new ownership structure include Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX, an investment firm owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates, each taking roughly 15 per cent. Other significant investors include the investment arm linked to the chief executive of Dell Technologies.

Details of the agreement first emerged last month, when reports indicated that TikTok chief executive Shou Chew had briefed staff via an internal memo, confirming that TikTok and ByteDance had secured commitments from a consortium of investors. The move brings to an end months of complex negotiations and prolonged uncertainty, following years of political scrutiny and repeated threats of a nationwide ban.

According to TikTok’s formal announcement, the newly created joint venture is intended to protect the data of US users by hosting the platform entirely on Oracle’s secure cloud infrastructure within the United States. The entity will also retrain TikTok’s recommendation algorithm using only data from US users and will take full responsibility for content moderation in the country.

The company said the new structure would preserve interoperability, allowing American users to continue accessing international content while ensuring that US-based creators remain visible to global audiences.

TikTok added that the same data protection and security measures will apply across other ByteDance-owned products operating in the US, including CapCut and Lemon8, as well as additional apps and websites covered by the new US-based framework.