ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, has finalised a deal to establish a majority American-owned joint venture that will secure US data, and thus avoid the ban that threatened to obliterate the popular short video app used by over 200 million Americans.
The TikTok USDS Joint Venture has three managing investors – Silver Lake, Oracle, and the Abu Dhabi-based MGX – each holding 15 per cent.
ByteDance said that the TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, which is 80.1 per cent owned by American and other global investments, will secure US user data, apps and algorithms through data privacy and cybersecurity measures.
ByteDance will retain 19.9 per cent of the Joint Venture, which been established in compliance with the Executive Order signed by President Donald Trump on September 25, 2025.
A White House official said that the US and Chinese governments had signed off on the deal.
Completing the full consortium of investors are: Dell Family Office, the investment firm of Michael Dell, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies; Vastmere Strategic Investments, LLC, an affiliate of Susquehanna International Group, LLP; Alpha Wave Partners; Revolution; Merritt Way, LLC controlled and managed by partners of Dragoneer; Via Nova, an affiliate of General Atlantic; Virgo LI, Inc., investment arm of a foundation established by Yuri and Julia Milner in support of science; and NJJ Capital, the family office of Xavier Niel, a French entrepreneur and pioneer in telecommunications.
MGX, which was established by Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund, and G42, a technology and AI company, has major partnerships with Microsoft and BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. MGX has also invested in Elon Musk’s xAI, as well as ChatGPT owners OpenAI.
US-led board to govern venture
The Joint Venture, built on the foundation of the TikTok US Data Security (USDS) organisation, will operate as an independent entity governed by the following seven-member, majority-American board of directors that also includes MGX’s David Scott. TikTok CEO Shou Chew was also named to the venture’s board. Chew leads TikTok’s global businesses and strategy.
The Joint Venture will be led by Adam Presser, who was appointed today as CEO by the Board as one of its first actions. He will be joined by Will Farrell as Chief Security Officer.
The venture will retrain, test and update TikTok’s content recommendation algorithm on US user data. US user data and the algorithm will be protected by USDS Joint Venture in Oracle’s secure US cloud environment. The Joint Venture will operate a comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity program that is audited and certified by third-party cybersecurity experts.
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