• by Colin Kirkland , Yesterday

Following the White House's insistence that it would finalize a TikTok sell-off deal with ByteDance in October, the Chinese tech giant is still in the process of coming to terms on a deal that would result in an American-only version of its popular video-sharing platform.

According to a report by CNBC, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew alerted staff members about a deal with the White House that will officially begin on January 22, 2026, one day prior to the end of President Donald Trump’s fourth Executive Order. 

Chew’s email to employees details how the company’s U.S. operations will be “housed in a new joint venture named ‘TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC,’” CNBC states, adding that TikTok has signed an agreement with three managing investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based MGX. 

Notably, Chew’s message also stated that the joint venture would be “majority owned by American investors, governed by a new seven-member majority-American board of directors, and subject to terms that protect Americans’ data and U.S. national security.”

Per the deal, investors will each hold a 15% stake in the U.S.-based TikTok platform, amount to 50% total, with just over 30% being held by ByteDance investors and 20% held by ByteDance itself. 

The deal between the White House and ByteDance is intended to enforce the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act passed by the Senate in January. 

In line with previous announcements, Oracle will store all data derived from the U.S.-based TikTok app in its cloud-computing data centers, while overseeing a recreation of TikTok’s original algorithm now based solely on U.S. user data to “ensure the content feed is free from outside manipulation,” per Chew’s memo. 

TikTok U.S. entities will also be in charge of managing the new platform’s advertising, e-commerce, marketing and product interoperability across the globe. 

Reacting to the news by way of an official statement, advisory and consulting firm Madison and Wall expect the closing of this deal may prove disruptive as it may introduce friction across user numbers and the general consumer experience, advertiser infrastructure and algorithmic performance.