TikTok seals long-awaited deal with American investors to avoid ban in US

The company said it will also put in place strict measures to protect data, secure its algorithms, and manage content moderation.

Updated on: Jan 23, 2026, 08:53:54 IST

By HT News Desk

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TikTok announced on Thursday that it had set up a joint venture that is majority owned by American investors to run its US operations in a move to allow the company to avoid a ban linked to its Chinese ownership.

The new TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC will serve more than 200 million users and 7.5 million businesses. (REUTERS)

The new TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC will serve more than 200 million users and 7.5 million businesses. The company said it will also put in place strict measures to protect data, secure its algorithms, and manage content moderation.

The agreement is a milestone for the social media company after years of disputes that began in August 2020, when US President Donald Trump tried to ban the app over national security concerns.

Who are the investors? Who is the new CEO?

TikTok said investors in the venture included Dell Family Office, the investment firm of Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell, along with Vastmere Strategic Investments, Alpha Wave Partners, Revolution, Merritt Way, Via Nova, Virgo LI, and NJJ Capital.

Former TikTok USDS executives Adam Presser and Will Farrell were appointed chief executive officer and chief security officer, respectively.

TikTok chief executive Shou Chew was also named to the venture’s board. He leads the company’s global business operations and strategy.

Inside the new TikTok deal

Under the agreement, American and global investors were set to hold 80.1 per cent of the venture, while ByteDance would retain a 19.9 per cent stake.

TikTok USDS JV’s three managing investors, cloud firm Oracle, private equity group Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi based investment company MGX, would each hold 15 per cent.

The details of the new deal remain in line with those shared in September, when Trump delayed enforcement of a law until January 23. The law would have banned the app unless its Chinese owner sold it, as part of efforts to separate the company’s US assets.

TikTok said the venture would retrain, test, and update its content recommendation algorithm using US user data. The algorithm would be stored in Oracle’s US based cloud system.

The plan put forward by the White House allows ByteDance to lease a copy of its content algorithm to the new US TikTok entity.

ByteDance was also expected to keep control of key parts of its US TikTok business, including its advertising unit and the fast growing TikTok Shop.

With inputs from agencies

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HT News Desk
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