What you need to know
- TikTok signed a deal to sell part of its U.S. business to a joint venture primarily controlled by American investors.
- The closing date for the sale is Jan. 22, 2026, and the terms give U.S. investors full control over the TikTok algorithm and app decision-making.
- It remains to be seen whether this deal meets the terms of a congressional bill banning the app, or if China will publicly sign off on the transaction.
More than a year after Congress passed a bill requiring the sale of TikTok’s U.S. business, the company signed a deal that would create a joint venture controlled by American investors, as reported by Axios. The closing date for TikTok’s sale is Jan. 22, 2026, and if there are no roadbumps along the way, the popular social media platform could be in new hands in roughly a month’s time. If you’re a TikTok user in the U.S. wondering what this means for the social app, you’re in the right place.
The deal was announced internally by TikTok CEO Shou Chew in a memo obtained by multiple news outlets. The TikTok leader reportedly said there is “more work to be done” ahead of the closing date, although the preliminary deal has been signed. The new joint venture would pass partial ownership of TikTok’s U.S. business to Oracle Corporation, Silver Lake, and MGX.
The new TikTok venture would see Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX hold 15% of the new company, with ByteDance keeping 19.9% ownership. Another 30.1% will reportedly be owned by affiliates of current ByteDance investors. The terms of the deal are said to create a seven-member board of directors for the new TikTok joint venture, with majority-American members.
Chew explained the terms of the deal in the reported memo (via ABC News):
Pursuant to the Executive Order signed by U.S. President Donald J. Trump on September 25, 2025, the agreements specify that the U.S. joint 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.
TikTok CEO Shou Chew
The new deal is the culmination of a lengthy process that included a congressional bill outlining the terms of the required sale of TikTok’s U.S. business. If a deal was not reached, the law mandated a nationwide ban. However, the bill also gave U.S. President Donald Trump the power to guide and approve the terms of a sale. TikTok was briefly banned in the U.S., but Trump also signed multiple executive orders extending the sale-or-ban deadline.
Now that a deal has been signed, here’s what we know about how it will affect users.
What’s changing for TikTok users
One of the U.S. government’s concerns with TikTok is how the platform’s algorithm could be used to influence the public. TikTok is currently owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. As part of the sale, the joint venture will reportedly control the TikTok algorithm, quelling those concerns.
The new company will retrain “the content recommendation algorithm on U.S. user data to ensure the content feed is free from outside manipulation,” according to Chew’s memo. Additionally, the joint venture will have “ultimate decision-making authority for reviewing and approving all content moderation and related policies within the United States.”
In other words, if you’re in the U.S., your TikTok feed may start to look different early next year — if the deal closes as expected.
The deal also mandates the storing of U.S. user data in a “trusted and secure cloud environment in the United States run by Oracle,” according to the memo.
What comes next for the planned TikTok sale
The closing date for TikTok’s sale is set to arrive next month, but in order for that to happen, a few questions will need to be answered.
Most importantly, experts say that China could block the deal from closing. In the past, U.S. President Trump said that Chinese President Xi Jinping signed off on the deal, but this has not been officially confirmed by the Chinese government. Additionally, it remains to be seen whether the signed deal meets the conditions of the congressional bill banning TikTok.
If everything moves forward as expected, TikTok users in the U.S. could start seeing a different algorithm next month.
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