- TikTok’s US sale could close on January 22, 2026
- A new US-led joint venture would take control of operations
- ByteDance would hold a minority stake
TikTok’s fate in the United States has been in flux since Congress passed a law compelling its sale to U.S. owners, and after several deadline extensions by Trump’s White House, the long-awaited deal may finally be in motion.
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 a part of a new joint venture dubbed ‘TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC.’ Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based MGX will be the three main partners, among other new investors, but it will be shared with China-based ByteDance – the original owner of TikTok – which will still retain a percentage.
This is a big change for TikTok, which has had a tumultuous year in the United States. That kicked off with a ban and then the Trump Administration offering a few extensions and a promise of US ownership on the horizon – not full, but at least 80% ownership in the US. That will effectively keep TikTok available, but it will change the app’s experience, as the algorithm likely won’t remain intact.
In the memo, which was seen by CNBC, it’s reported that Shou Zi Chew wrote that the venture 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 portion of this venture is focused on US operations, and a key tenet would be solving – or at least alleviating – 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 charged with protecting US data on the app, including the all-important algorithm, which powers 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 reads, “retraining the content recommendation algorithm on U.S. user data to ensure the content feed is free from outside manipulation.”
TikTok’s global aspects won’t be entirely going away, though. ByteDance, TikTok’s current parent company, will still retain a percentage of ownership over the ‘TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC’ and will also ensure that US TikTok works with the other versions of the app.
It remains to be seen whether this deal officially closes, but also what this truly means for TikTok and how it might change the experience for the countless users in the United States. TechRadar has reached out to TikTok for further comment on the reports and for details on this sale.
As a reminder, the last major update came in September 2025, when the White House said it had worked through a deal with China to sell TikTok’s US operations to a new venture and a US group. In 2020, the first Trump Administration issued an executive order mandating a sale, which initiated this years-long process.
It seems, though, that TikTok’s US operations may soon shift from China-based ByteDance to a new US-operated venture — a change that could take effect on January 22, 2026.
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jacob.krol@futurenet.com (Jacob Krol)
