Africa-Press – Kenya. TikTok announced Thursday the establishment of a primarily US-owned joint venture to continue its operations in the United States after a deal was reached between Washington and Beijing.
“Today, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC has been established in compliance with the Executive Order signed by President (Donald) Trump on September 25, 2025, now enabling more than 200 million Americans and 7.5 million businesses to continue to discover, create and thrive as part of TikTok’s vibrant global community and experience,” the company announced in a statement.
It noted that the joint venture will operate under defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurances for US users.
The joint venture will have three managing investors including Oracle, Silver Lake and the United Arab Emirates-based AI firm MGX, each holding a 15% stake. Meanwhile, Chinese parent company ByteDance will retain 19.9%.
Additional participants include Susquehanna, Dragoneer and DFO, the family office of Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell.
Trump also welcomed the finalization of the deal on his Truth Social platform.
“I am so happy to have helped in saving TikTok! It will now be owned by a group of Great American Patriots and Investors, the Biggest in the World, and will be an important Voice,” he wrote.
Trump also thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping for working with the US and approving the deal.
“He could have gone the other way, but didn’t, and is appreciated for his decision,” he said.
Earlier, the US news website Semafor reported that Washington and Beijing had reached the deal to sell TikTok’s American operations to a group of primarily US-based investors.
The closing aligns with a Jan. 22 deadline established by Trump via an executive order that provided a temporary stay on a federal ban of the app.
While the 2024 legislation required divestiture due to data privacy concerns, Trump extended the deadline multiple times to facilitate the transition. Despite the video-sharing platform briefly going dark before Trump’s inauguration, it was restored following his presidential intervention.
