TikTok just pulled off a massive pivot — and it’s got Donald Trump’s fingerprints all over it.
On Thursday, TikTok announced it had sealed the deal on a majority American-owned joint venture, a move designed to end the years-long legal and national security saga that nearly saw the wildly popular app banned in the United States.
The newly formed TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC will be 80.1% owned by American investors, with Chinese parent company ByteDance holding on to just 19.9%. The restructuring fulfills the strict regulatory standards laid out in Trump’s September 25, 2025, executive order, aimed at keeping U.S. data out of Beijing’s reach.
“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,” Trump posted triumphantly on Truth Social following the announcement.
The restructuring is built on the foundation of TikTok’s U.S. Data Security (USDS) program and will put TikTok, along with its sister apps CapCut and Lemon8, under American oversight for the first time. That means tighter control over data, algorithms, and content moderation — all handled on U.S. soil, inside Oracle’s domestic cloud infrastructure.
TRUMP TRUTH / TikTok pic.twitter.com/4ropgtCytU
— Biff Smallberries (@B_Smallberries) January 23, 2026
Do you support the new American majority ownership of TikTok?
TRUMP TRUTH / TikTok And yes, Oracle is front and center. Along with Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX, the three will serve as managing investors in the venture, each holding a 15% stake. Oracle’s cloud systems will house the platform’s powerful recommendation algorithms, a major sticking point for national security experts.
The new U.S.-based entity will be governed by a seven-member board, led by majority-American stakeholders. The lineup includes major players: TikTok CEO Shou Chew, Oracle’s Kenneth Glueck, Silver Lake’s Egon Durban, MGX’s David Scott, and new joint venture CEO Adam Presser.
With over 200 million American users and more than 7.5 million businesses relying on the platform, the deal is being hailed as a breakthrough moment — saving TikTok from the chopping block while giving U.S. regulators what they demanded: control.
The joint venture won’t break the TikTok mold for creators. The company promises a “global TikTok experience” will remain intact, meaning content creators can still go viral from their bedrooms in Kansas and California to the streets of Tokyo and London.
This isn’t just a tech deal — it’s a geopolitical chess move. After years of wrangling, the U.S. just wrestled control away from Beijing, secured a platform used by millions, and proved that hardball politics can still force the world’s biggest tech players to play by American rules.
