On Thursday, a binding agreement was signed between ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, and a consortium of U.S. investors that includes Oracle, creating a new joint venture that will assume control of TikTok’s U.S. operations. The entity, called TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, will have majority control held by American stakeholders.
Under the agreement, U.S. companies will receive 80 percent ownership of TikTok’s U.S. operations, while ByteDance will retain a 20 percent minority share. The transaction is not yet finalized, with closing expected in January, marking what may be the end of a two-year struggle over control of the platform.
The saga began in April 2024 when President Joe Biden signed legislation requiring ByteDance to divest or face a ban on TikTok in the United States the following January. Though TikTok was briefly banned at the start of 2025, newly inaugurated President Donald Trump reversed the ban, repeatedly delaying enforcement while negotiations with China continued. A tentative agreement was reportedly first reached in September in a call between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
While U.S. officials continue to frame the forced divestiture as a national security issue related to Chinese influence, critics argue that political concerns around social media narratives helped drive the crackdown. Figures including Anti-Defamation League President Jonathan Greenblatt, former Senator Mitt Romney, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have linked TikTok to declining U.S. support for Israel among younger Americans, citing what they claim is overwhelmingly anti-Israeli content on the platform.
Oracle founder Larry Ellison, whose company will take part in the new joint venture, is a prominent donor to the Israeli military. Provisions in the new agreement reportedly require the joint venture to retrain TikTok’s recommendation algorithm exclusively on U.S. user data. In recent months, some users have reported removals and bans of content critical of Israel, fueling concerns that political pressure will shape moderation once the new entity takes control.