TikTok confirms it has signed agreements for a new joint venture in the United States

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TikTok CEO Shou Chew told employees that the company and ByteDance had signed binding agreements to create a joint venture in the United States with a majority participation of American investors, according to an internal memo to which Bloomberg had access.

In the document, Chew wrote that he was “happy to share great news” and said deals with Oracle, Silver Lake Management and MGX had been signed. The deal is expected to close on January 22, 2026, although Chew added that “there is still work to be done” until then.

Once the transaction is concluded, the joint venture in the United States will operate as an independent entity that will control data protection, content moderation and algorithm security in the country, Chew told employees in the memo.

The new American entity will also be “governed by a new board of directors composed of seven members, with an American majority,” he added.

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“Once concluded, the US joint venture, built on the foundations of the existing TikTok US Data Security (USDS) organization, will operate as an independent entity with authority over US data protection, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurance,” Chew said in the memo.

So far, Chinese regulators have not yet indicated whether they will approve the transaction.

The memo outlines a deal that matches what the White House announced in September, which at the time was contingent on Chinese approval and valued TikTok’s U.S. operations at around $14 billion.

Chew’s memo, released Thursday, does not mention China’s position on the transaction, which would take part – but not full control – of TikTok US out of ByteDance’s hands. Under the deal, 50% of TikTok’s US investors will be new investors, with Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX – an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm – each holding a 15% stake; 30.1% would be companies affiliated with certain existing ByteDance investors; and 19.9% ​​would stay with ByteDance.

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The conditions outlined in the CEO’s memo appear to leave the door open for ByteDance to maintain oversight of key elements of TikTok in the United States, an app used by half the country. Bloomberg News previously reported that the Chinese parent company would keep about 50% of the profits from TikTok’s U.S. operations.

A Financial Times report highlights that TikTok’s chief executive added in the message sent to employees that ByteDance entities in the United States would continue to run their core revenue-generating businesses in the country, including “e-commerce, advertising and marketing.”

ByteDance’s involvement has long been a sore point in the negotiations and has led critics — including members of Trump’s own political party — to argue that the White House-brokered deal may not withstand a legal challenge. The national security law approved and signed into law under former President Joe Biden determined that TikTok US and ByteDance had no operational relationship.

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ByteDance’s coveted content algorithms are considered essential to TikTok’s business. Under the version of the deal recently outlined by the White House, ByteDance is expected to license its AI-based recommendation technology to TikTok’s new U.S. entity, which will use the existing algorithm to retrain a new system with U.S. data secured by Oracle, TikTok’s cloud partner.

Oracle’s role as data security gatekeeper has also raised concerns. This deal mirrors an earlier collaboration between TikTok and Oracle, proposed years ago to the U.S. government as a way to resolve similar concerns over TikTok’s Chinese ownership. This partnership, called Project Texas, ended up being rejected by the American government, deemed insufficient to meet national security challenges.

If finalized, the deal would eliminate a lingering problem in relations between Beijing and Washington and signal progress in broader negotiations between the two countries, which have clashed over issues including trade and other issues.

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The White House has dominated disclosures about the proposed arrangement, which was required for national security reasons by a law passed last year during Joe Biden’s administration. U.S. officials have expressed concern that TikTok is controlled by a Chinese company and fear that Beijing could use the app to collect data from U.S. citizens or promote specific narratives to Americans through the app’s recommendation algorithm.

The sale or ban deadline has been extended several times

By law, the original deadline for implementing the sell-or-ban rule was last January, but Trump has extended that deadline several times since returning to office, most recently pushing it back to January 2026.

In recent months, as the prospect of a ban under Trump has become less and less likely, TikTok has operated as normal and further cemented its position as the dominant cultural force in the United States.

In September, U.S. lawmakers who pushed for a ban on TikTok in the United States expressed doubts about the Trump administration’s ability to reach a deal that would allow foreign investors to acquire half of the Chinese company’s U.S. operations.

That month, the United States and China reached an agreement to keep the TikTok application operational on American territory. The agreement was reached during the second day of a meeting between representatives from Washington and Beijing, who were meeting in Madrid to discuss the tariff war between the two countries.

In October, China promised to cooperate with the United States to resolve the future of TikTok’s operations in the country, but avoided saying whether it accepted the deal championed by President Donald Trump to spin off ByteDance’s main asset.

The company has aggressively advanced e-commerce and live shopping, including establishing partnerships with major U.S. technology companies such as Amazon. The same day Chew announced a deal had been reached, TikTok held its first Oscar-style red carpet event, the TikTok Awards, in Los Angeles.