TikTok U.S. Deal Set to Close January 22
The years-long TikTok saga ends with Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX taking 45% of a new $14 billion joint venture, with ByteDance retaining 19.9%.
The TikTok situation finally has an end date.
The social video platform signed agreements with Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi's MGX to form TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, with closing scheduled for January 22, 2026. CEO Shou Zi Chew confirmed the timeline in an internal memo on December 18.
Oracle shares have gained roughly 7% since the deal structure emerged last week.
The Structure
The new U.S. joint venture will be 50% owned by American investors. Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX each take 15% stakes. Another 30.1% goes to affiliates of existing ByteDance investors, while ByteDance itself retains 19.9%—a minority position designed to satisfy national security requirements.
Vice President JD Vance said the deal values TikTok's U.S. operations at $14 billion.
Oracle's Role
Beyond equity, Oracle will serve as TikTok's "trusted security partner," responsible for auditing compliance with national security terms. Sensitive U.S. user data will be stored in Oracle's domestic cloud infrastructure—a key concession to regulators who worried about Chinese government access.
Larry Ellison's company already provides data and computing services for TikTok's U.S. operations. The deal deepens that relationship considerably.
Governance Changes
The joint venture will operate under a seven-member, majority-American board of directors. That board will have exclusive authority over U.S. data protection, content moderation, and algorithm security—the areas that drew the most regulatory scrutiny.
For practical purposes, TikTok's American operations will function semi-independently from ByteDance's global business.
End of a Saga
The deal resolves years of uncertainty. The Trump administration first pushed for a TikTok sale in 2020, citing national security risks from Chinese ownership. The Biden administration continued the pressure, culminating in legislation that threatened to ban the app absent divestiture.
This structure threads the needle: ByteDance doesn't fully exit, but American investors and governance controls address the security concerns that drove the regulatory action.
For Oracle, it's a meaningful win—recurring cloud revenue plus a 15% stake in one of the world's most popular apps. For TikTok's 170 million American users, it means the app isn't going anywhere.