It’s Friday, January 23, 2026, and if you’ve spent the last two years worried that your “For You” page was going to go dark, you can finally breathe. Yesterday, the clock was ticking toward a total U.S. ban, but a “dramatic and beautiful” deal just saved the app.
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The thing is, TikTok is no longer a Chinese-controlled company in America. It’s now the TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC. Or nothing.
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The Great TikTok Spinoff: Field Notes
It’s an ongoing situation where the app survived by basically performing a corporate transplant. Here’s the ground reality of the deal that President Trump is currently claiming as his biggest win of the year:
The 19.9% Firewall: To satisfy the 2024 law, ByteDance had to drop below 20% ownership. They hit 19.9% exactly. The rest? It’s now owned by a consortium of “Great American Patriots” (Trump’s words) and global investors. Those too.
The New Power Players: Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX each snagged a 15% stake. Larry Ellison (Oracle) is the big winner here—every single bit of data from the 200 million U.S. users is now being moved into Oracle’s “secure cloud.”
The Algorithm Surgery: This is the kicker. The famous “secret sauce” algorithm isn’t being sold, but it’s being “retrained” on U.S. soil. The JV will have a separate version of the code that is audited by third-party cybersecurity experts. Let’s be real—it’s a digital border wall.
New Leadership: While Shou Chew keeps his job as global CEO, the American venture will be run by Adam Presser (a former Warner Bros. exec). The board is seven people, and yes, it’s majority American. Or nothing.
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TikTok USDS JV: The Ownership Map
| Stakeholder | % Ownership | The “Ground” Reality |
| ByteDance | 19.9% | Retains a minority, non-controlling stake. |
| Oracle | 15.0% | The data host and technical auditor. |
| Silver Lake | 15.0% | Private equity muscle led by Egon Durban. |
| MGX (UAE) | 15.0% | The Abu Dhabi AI fund that helped bridge the gap. |
| Consortium | 35.1% | Includes Dell Family Office and General Atlantic. |
And Here’s the Kicker…
The thing is, Trump didn’t just thank American investors; he explicitly thanked President Xi Jinping on Truth Social for “approving the deal.” Let’s be real—this was a geopolitical chess move. ByteDance is also reportedly paying a multibillion-dollar fee to the U.S. Treasury as a “regulatory insurance” payment. Those too.
One side comment—the deal doesn’t just cover TikTok. It includes CapCut and Lemon8. If you’re a creator, your entire toolkit just got a permanent U.S. residency. It’s an ongoing situation where the app is finally “safe” from the ban-hammer. Or nothing.
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End…
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