What you should know about the owners of US TikTok

Summary

​ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, recently established a separate American entity to run the app’s U.S. operations. This restructuring aims to separate U.S. TikTok from its Chinese parent, addressing concerns about data privacy and foreign control. The move came after years of pressure from lawmakers, who feared the Chinese government’s potential access to Americans’ data. In 2024, Congress enacted a law, mandating that TikTok’s U.S. operations be separated from ByteDance. ​Under the new structure, about 80% of the U.S. TikTok entity is owned by non-Chinese investors, with ByteDance keeping only a 19.9% share. The newly formed entity, “TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC,” licenses TikTok’s recommendation algorithm from ByteDance and independently manages content moderation, and oversees data protection, algorithm security, and software controls. The managing investor group consists of Oracle, the private equity firm Silver Lake, and the investment firm MGX. Each holds a 15% stake, totaling 45% of the U.S. business. Here’s what you should know about them. Oracle Oracle is a leading cloud computing and database firm that collaborates with top companies, such as OpenAI. Oracle previously attempted to acquire TikTok and already provides cloud infrastructure for the app, managing its U.S. user data. Under the new deal, Oracle serves as the security partner, auditing TikTok’s compliance with U.S. security requirements, managing data storage, and overseeing updates to the content recommendation algorithm. It’s important to note that Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, now the company’s executive chairman and chief technology officer, is a prominent billionaire with known connections to President Trump. Techcrunch event San Francisco | October 13-15, 2026 MGX MGX is an AI-focused investment firm based in the United Arab Emirates, which invests in semiconductors and data centers. The firm was created by Mubadala (Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund) and G42, an Emirati AI c...