- TikTok sale in the US could close on January 22, 2026
- A new US-led joint venture would take control of operations
- ByteDance would have a minority stake
TikTok’s fate in the United States has been in flux since Congress passed a law mandating its sale to American owners, and after several deadline extensions by the Trump White House, the long-awaited deal may finally be underway.
According to reports from CNBC and Axios, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew confirmed that in a deal set to close on January 22, 2026, TikTok in the US will be part of a new joint venture called ‘TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC’. Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX will be the three main partners, among other new investors, but will be shared with China-based ByteDance (TikTok’s original owner), which will still retain a percentage.
This is a big change for TikTok, which has had a tumultuous year in the United States. That started with a ban and then the Trump Administration offered some extensions and a promise of American ownership on the horizon: not full, but at least with 80% ownership in the United States. That will effectively keep TikTok available, but it will change the app experience as the algorithm likely won’t remain intact.
In the memo, seen by CNBC, Shou Zi Chew reportedly wrote that the company will 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.”
A large part of this enterprise is focused on US operations, and a key principle would be to resolve (or at least alleviate) national security concerns in the United States, which were the original reason behind the proposed ban and led us down this path.
The joint venture will be responsible for protecting US data in the app, including the most important algorithm, which drives the ‘For You’ feed and what each user sees in the app, as well as content moderation. Axios, which has seen the memo, reports that it says: “retrain the content recommendation algorithm on US user data to ensure content is free of external manipulation.”
However, the global aspects of TikTok will not disappear completely. ByteDance, TikTok’s current parent company, will continue to retain a percentage ownership of ‘TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC’ and will also ensure that American TikTok works with the other versions of the app.
It remains to be seen if this deal officially closes, but also what it really means for TikTok and how it could change the experience for countless users in the United States. TechRadar has reached out to TikTok for further comment on the reports and details regarding this sale.
As a reminder, the last major update came in September 2025, when the White House said it had worked on a deal with China to sell TikTok’s US operations to a new company and an American group. In 2020, the first Trump administration issued an executive order mandating a sale, beginning this years-long process.
However, it appears that TikTok’s US operations could soon move from China-based ByteDance to a new US-operated company, a change that could take effect on January 22, 2026.
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