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TikTok has signed a deal to sell its US business to three US investors – Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX – ensuring the popular social video platform can continue to operate in the country.
The deal is expected to close on Jan. 22, 2026, according to an internal memo reviewed by The Associated Press.
CEO Shu Zi Chu told employees in a memo that ByteDance and TikTok have signed binding agreements with three investors.
Half of TikTok's new US joint venture will be owned by a consortium of investors including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX, each of which will own a 15 percent stake.
According to the memorandum, another 30.1% will be owned by affiliates of existing ByteDance investors, and 19.9% will remain with China's ByteDance.
Justin Trudeau's Liberal government has banned TikTok's business operations in Canada over national security concerns, but Canadians can still use the app. Government officials said the decision was made on the advice of Canadian security and intelligence agencies.
The algorithm will be retrained on data from US users
The board of directors of the American enterprise will have seven members, in which the majority will be Americans, the memorandum says.
It will also be subject to terms that “protect Americans’ data and U.S. national security.”
US user data will be stored locally on a system managed by Oracle.
TikTok's algorithm – the secret sauce behind its addictive video feed – will be retrained on data from US users to “ensure that the content stream is free from external manipulation,” the note said.
The American enterprise will also oversee content moderation and policy within the country.
The deal marks the end of years of uncertainty over the fate of the popular video-sharing platform in the United States.
In April 2024, after a bipartisan majority passed in Congress—and then-President Joe Biden signed— a law that would ban TikTok in the US, unless it finds a new owner instead of China's ByteDance, the platform was required to shut down by a legal deadline of January 2025.
For several hoursso it was. But on his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep the company running while his administration tried to reach an agreement to sell the company.
US President Donald Trump last week signed an executive order clearing the way for a group of investors to take control of the app's US operations. For The National, CBC's Ashley Fraser breaks down what we know about the deal and what US ownership could mean for your #fyp.
Three more executive orders followed as Trump continued to extend the deadline for the TikTok deal without a clear legal basis.
The second was in Aprilwhen White House officials believed they were close to a deal to spin off TikTok into a new US-owned company. That deal fell apart when China pulled out after Trump announced tariffs.
The third one came in June and another in Septemberwhich Trump said would allow TikTok to continue operating in the US in a manner that meets national security concerns.
