TikTok has finalized a deal to sell parts of its US business. Oracle, Silver Lake, MGX, and Michael Dell are part of the consortium of new investors.<\/b>
\nWho’s grabbing control of TikTok’s US assets?
TikTok announced on Thursday that it had closed a deal that will establish a joint venture for parts of its US business with a group of investors.
Three managing investors will each hold a 15% stake in the new venture: Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX.
ByteDance, TikTok’s owner, will maintain a 19.9% minority stake \u2014 the maximum allowed by the divest-or-ban law that spurred TikTok’s sale. The remaining 35.1% will be controlled by a consortium of investors, including affiliates of some existing ByteDance investors.
Some individuals are also getting a piece of TikTok US, including the family office of Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Technologies.
The new TikTok US joint venture said it’s appointing a seven-person board of directors, which will include TikTok CEO Shou Chew, as well as representatives from investors like Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX.
Meanwhile, Adam Presser, a TikTok trust and safety executive, will act as CEO of TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC.
While the company did not provide a valuation for the joint venture in its announcement, the Trump administration said in September that the entity was worth around $14 billion.
The goal for the new joint venture is to secure US user data, trust and safety, and content moderation.
«The safeguards provided by the joint venture will also cover CapCut, and Lemon8, and a portfolio of other apps and websites in the US», the company said in its January announcement.
ByteDance, meanwhile, will continue to oversee key commercial areas like e-commerce, advertising, and marketing.
Here are the key players in TikTok’s US business going forward:Larry Ellison’s Oracle will have a 15% stake in the new joint venture
Software giant Oracle will take a 15% stake in TikTok’s US joint venture.
Kenneth Glueck, an EVP at Oracle who advises the company’s CEO, will join the board of directors.
Prior to the joint venture deal, Oracle was already working closely with TikTok’s US Data Security division (USDS). The company has stored US TikTok users’ data for years.
Larry Ellison, who is also a financial participant in a bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery’s business, is the chairman and cofounder of Oracle and a longtime Trump ally.
Oracle, which currently works with TikTok on data security, is expected to remain its «trusted security partner» tasked with safeguarding «sensitive US user data», Chew wrote in a December memo to staffers.
TikTok’s new US owners will retrain the content recommendation algorithm on US user data «to ensure the content feed is free from outside manipulation», per the December memo.
Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Abu Dhabi’s MGX is one of three ‘managing investors’ taking over TikTok US
MGX is a state-owned investment firm in Abu Dhabi.
It will also take a 15% stake in the new TikTok entity as one of three managing investors.
The firm is focused on AI.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal ruling family, is the firm’s chairman. The fund participated in OpenAI’s $6.6 billion investment round in 2024.
David Scott, MGX’s chief strategy and safety officer, will serve on the joint venture’s board of directors and security committee, according to TikTok’s blog post announcing the joint venture.
MGX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Private equity firm Silver Lake will also hold 15% of TikTok US
Silver Lake is a tech-focused private equity firm.
The firm will take a 15% stake in the new TikTok entity.
Its current investments include Klarna, Carta, Dell Technologies, Genies, and Waymo, per the firm’s website. Previous investments include Airbnb, Twitter, and Tesla.
Egon Durban and Greg Mondre both act as co-CEOs and managing partners at the private equity firm.
Durban will join the TikTok US joint venture’s board of directors.
Silver Lake did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Michael Dell’s family office is one of several new investors
Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell is also involved in the deal.
Dell’s family office is one of several new investors TikTok listed as being part of a consortium. It’s not clear how much control Dell’s investment will have.
In September, Trump said Dell would be involved in the deal.Seven other investors will be part of the consortium
In addition to Michael Dell’s family office, TikTok named seven other investors as being part of the joint venture. Some are tied to existing ByteDance investors, such as Vastmere Strategic Investments, an affiliate of Susquehanna International Group.
Here are the seven other investors:ByteDance will have 19.9% of the venture and control key business lines
ByteDance will own 19.9% of the new joint venture, the most it can legally hold according to the terms of the divest-or-ban law.
The company will also retain control key business areas like TikTok Shop, advertising, and marketing, according to Chew’s December memo.
In January, the company began splitting its US workers into different entities based on whether they would continue to work under ByteDance or move under the USDS joint venture, Business Insider first reported.<\/p>\n