TikTok signs deal to sell U.S. unit to American investor group : NPR

TikTok company offices in Culver City, California on September 30, 2025. A deal to sell the US side of the company to a group of US investors was signed on December 18.

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

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Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

TikTok has signed a deal to sell its U.S. operations to a group controlled by mostly American investors, including software giant Oracle, a company run by Trump ally Larry Ellison.

The now-signed deal is expected to close on Jan. 22, according to a memo TikTok CEO Shou Chew sent to employees Thursday that was confirmed by NPR.

TikTok’s hyper-engaging algorithm and the massive amount of data the app has collected on millions of Americans are expected to be overseen by the new U.S. entity. TikTok’s algorithm, however, will remain owned and updated by Beijing-based ByteDance, with the blessing of U.S. listeners, according to two sources familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Under the terms of the sale, half of the new entity that will control the US version of TikTok will be owned by a consortium of investors including Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake and UAE state-backed investment firm MGX. These three will control 45% of the new American entity TikTok.

About a third of the newly created TikTok operation will be owned by existing investors in ByteDance, the video app’s Chinese parent company. And around 20% will be kept by ByteDance.

A seven-member board of directors, most of them American, will oversee the new entity, according to the memo, first reported by Axios.

The deal ends more than five years of mounting pressure from Washington, where bipartisan concerns about TikTok’s ties to China prompted Congress to pass a law in 2024 that would have banned the app unless it was sold.

The law was upheld by the Supreme Court in January. For months, TikTok technically operated in violation of federal law, but Trump took a series of executive actions to delay enforcement of the law that would have banned the popular video app.

TikTok has around 2 billion users worldwide, and less than 10% of its global users are based in the United States.

A new US entity overseeing the US version creates a curious situation for the viral video app: One version of the service will be run by a US-backed company, with additional checks and balances on content feeds and data security, while a second version of the app, operated entirely by ByteDance, will be available to the rest of the world.