TikTok Announces Formation Of US Majority-Owned Joint Venture To Prevent Ban

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

TikTok said on Jan. 22 it has formed an American majority-owned joint venture that would oversee data security and the content ecosystem in a bid to maintain its operations in the United States.

TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC will operate as an independent entity overseen by a seven-member board of directors that includes TikTok CEO Shou Chew, Silver Lake co-CEO Egon Durban, Oracle executive vice president Kenneth Glueck, among others, according to a statement.

“The majority American owned Joint Venture will operate under defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurances for U.S. users,” TikTok said in the statement.

The joint venture will be led by CEO Adam Presser and Chief Security Officer Will Farrell and is backed by three managing investors—tech company Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, and United Arab Emirates investment company MGX—each with a 15 percent stake.

ByteDance, the Beijing-based parent company of TikTok, retains a 19.9 percent stake, according to the statement. The new company is also backed by a consortium of investors that includes Dell Family Office, Vastmere Strategic Investments, Alpha Wave Partners, Revolution, Merritt Way, and Via Nova, among others.

TikTok said the joint venture will implement data privacy and cybersecurity measures to secure U.S. user data, apps, and algorithms, and put in place safety policies and content moderation to safeguard the content ecosystem.

The move complies with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Sept. 25, 2025, and will enable continued access to the video-sharing app for more than 200 million U.S. users, the company said.

TikTok had been required, under a law signed by President Joe Biden in 2024, to divest its U.S. assets or face a nationwide ban over national security concerns. Trump later delayed enforcement of that law after taking office for a second term in January 2025.

On Sept. 25, 2025, Trump issued an executive order outlining a framework for TikTok to continue its operations in the United States through a joint venture that is majority-owned by Americans and governed by rules protecting Americans’ data and national security.

Trump’s order requires U.S. user data to be stored in a cloud environment run by an American company. To address this, TikTok said in its statement that the USDS Joint Venture will use Oracle’s cloud to store the data.

TikTok has faced scrutiny amid concerns that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could potentially access U.S. consumer data and the algorithm owned by ByteDance. U.S. officials have raised national security concerns about the app due to ByteDance’s alleged ties to the CCP, claims the company has denied.