TikTok announced on Thursday that its Chinese owner, ByteDance, had reached an agreement with a group of non-Chinese investors to establish a new TikTok in the United States. This brings an end to a six-year legal drama in which Congress banned the app, and it became entangled in politics between two major international powers when it reached a historic agreement to create a new U.S.-based company, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC.
In order to meet national security standards set forth by a 2024 statute, the agreement establishes TikTok’s U.S. activities as a 51% American-owned enterprise.
More than 80% of the new business will be owned by investors, including the software behemoth Oracle, the Emirati investment group MGX, and Silver Lake. According to TikTok, the list also includes other companies and Michael Dell’s personal investment company, the computer millionaire who founded Dell Technologies. The CEO of TikTok in the United States will be Adam Presser, the company’s former head of operations.
In addition to addressing national security fears that Beijing might use the app to monitor or control its more than 200 million users in the US, the agreement aims to weaken TikTok’s ties to China. In an internal memo, Shou Chew, the CEO of TikTok, described the changes as “great news” and stated that they allow “our U.S. users to continue to discover, create and thrive as part of TikTok’s vibrant global community and experience.”
Existential concerns regarding TikTok’s future are resolved by the deal, which was negotiated over the course of more than a year. If the app had not split off from ByteDance, it would have been forced to exit the American market due to its constant stream of lip-syncs, political endorsements, conspiracy theories, and skincare guides.
A legal odyssey came to an end as well. Since 2019, the Supreme Court has unanimously supported attempts by universities, several U.S. military services, the majority of the House of Representatives, President Trump, and President Joseph R. Biden Jr to prohibit or block TikTok. In order to preserve their feeds and following counts, influencers organised protests and lobbied lawmakers thanks to the app. TikTok got caught up in a trade war between China and the United States as the two countries fought fiercely over economic and technological dominance.
However, the drama continued for so long and had such little impact that even those who had previously battled to save the app had given up on it.
Last year, after the January 19 deadline and the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the original divestiture law, TikTok briefly went dark in the United States. The following day, January 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order shortly after taking office, extending the deadlines and restoring service while negotiations over a sale continued.
On Thursday, January 22, 2026, just one day before the Trump administration’s final deadline, the transaction was officially completed.
President Trump commended the “beautiful conclusion”, expressing gratitude to Chinese President Xi Jinping for finally approving the deal. Although the agreement permits the app’s 200 million U.S. users to continue using it, several lawmakers and national security experts are still unsure if the lingering connections to ByteDance completely remove foreign influence.
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