By Amrith Ramkumar
TikTok officially established a joint venture that would allow it to keep operating in the U.S., the company said Thursday, resolving a yearslong fight to address Washington's national-security concerns.
Under the terms of the deal negotiated by the Trump administration, the popular video-sharing app will be operated by a new U.S. entity controlled by investors seen as friendly to the U.S. Its data-management and algorithm-training on American users will be overseen by Oracle, the cloud-computing giant that has safeguarded its U.S. data for years and has close ties to the Trump administration.
The deal was negotiated to comply with a law passed in 2024. President Trump delayed the implementation of the law a year ago after starting his second term to keep TikTok operating in the U.S. He signed a series of executive orders to extend the deadline for completing a deal until it was met Thursday.
Trump and TikTok's investors and allies pushed the deal through despite lingering concerns among lawmakers and security hawks that China could still influence the new entity through TikTok parent ByteDance, which owns almost 20% of it.
"The majority American owned joint venture will operate under defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurances for U.S. users," TikTok CEO Shou Chew said in an internal note to employees announcing the news.
Chew's deputy Adam Presser will lead the new entity, which was created after securing approval from the U.S. and Chinese governments. The board members include Chew, Oracle executive Ken Glueck and several investors.
Oracle, private-equity firm Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX will each own 15% of the new entity while existing TikTok investors own about 30%.
Other notable investors include Vice President JD Vance's former firm Revolution and tech executive Michael Dell's family investment office.
Vance spent a brief stint at the firm founded by AOL co-founder Steve Case during his time as a venture investor, which preceded his 2022 Senate campaign.
Vance said previously that the deal values the new entity at about $14 billion.
The investors are paying the U.S. government a multibillion-dollar fee for arranging the deal, a concept Trump previously called a "tremendous fee-plus."
TikTok said it has 200 million users in the U.S., up from its 2024 estimate of about 170 million.
Trump touted his popularity on TikTok earlier Thursday, posting on Truth Social that his posts on the platform get more engagement than posts on TikTok competitor Instagram, which is owned by Meta Platforms.
Trump has said that TikTok helped him win his second term after previously trying to ban the app in the U.S. during his first term.
Write to Amrith Ramkumar at amrith.ramkumar@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 22, 2026 21:08 ET (02:08 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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