TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, has reached binding agreements with a group of US and international investors to hand over majority ownership of its American business, the company’s chief executive told staff on Thursday.
In a memo sent to employees, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said the new joint venture will see half of the US operation owned by investors including Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX. The transaction is expected to be completed on 22 January.
The agreement would bring to a close years of pressure from Washington to force a sale of TikTok’s US arm over national security concerns.
It follows a framework first revealed in September, when US President Donald Trump delayed enforcement of a law that threatened to ban the app unless it was sold.
In the internal memo, TikTok said the deal would allow “over 170 million Americans to continue discovering a world of endless possibilities as part of a vital global community”.
Under the ownership structure, ByteDance will keep a 19.9% stake. Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX will each hold 15%, while affiliates of existing ByteDance investors will control the remaining 30.1%.
The White House has previously said Oracle, co-founded by Trump ally Larry Ellison, will license TikTok’s recommendation algorithm as part of the arrangement.
The agreement follows a long series of delays and political wrangling. In April 2024, under President Joe Biden’s administration, Congress passed legislation to ban TikTok unless it was sold, citing national security risks.
Although the law was due to take effect on 20 January 2025, Trump postponed its enforcement several times as negotiations continued.
Trump said in September that he had spoken directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping, claiming Beijing had approved the deal.
However, uncertainty lingered even after the two leaders met in person in October, as broader trade and geopolitical tensions continued to overshadow the talks.
“TikTok has become a bargaining chip in the wider US-China relationship,” said Alvin Graylin, a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“With recent softening tensions, Beijing’s sign off on the structure and algorithm licensing now looks less like capitulation and more like calibrated de-escalation, letting both capitals claim a win at home.”
The White House directed the BBC to TikTok when asked to comment. Oracle and Silver Lake declined to respond, while the BBC said it had contacted MGX for a statement.
Not everyone in Washington is convinced. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon criticised the agreement, arguing it would not improve data protection for users.
“It wouldn’t do ‘a thing to protect the privacy of American user’,” Wyden said.
As part of the deal, TikTok’s recommendation algorithm will be retrained using US user data, a move the company says is intended to prevent outside influence. Wyden, however, questioned the effectiveness of the measure.
“It’s unclear that it will even put TikTok’s algorithm in safer hands,” he said.
Wyden opposed the 2024 ban law and was among lawmakers who pushed to extend the January deadline to give Congress more time to address security concerns.
Some TikTok creators and business owners are also watching developments cautiously. Tiffany Cianci, a small business owner with more than 300,000 followers and nearly four million likes on the app, said she hopes the new investors will preserve the platform’s appeal for entrepreneurs.
“I hope small business owners are protected,” Ms Cianci said.
TikTok says more than seven million small businesses in the US rely on the platform to promote their products and services.
“I reserve judgement on whether or not we have saved the app for those small business,” she added.
Ms Cianci said TikTok’s profit-sharing model is more attractive than rival platforms such as Meta, which influenced her decision to build her business there.
Over the past year, she has also helped organise protests in Washington and online aimed at keeping the app available in the US.
