TikTok ByteDance stake reduced to 19.9% via USDS Joint Venture

TikTok isn't going anywhere—at least, not in the way lawmakers expected. According to The Verge, the video-sharing giant has finally closed a massive deal to comply with US law. The company announced on Tuesday that its US operations are now part of the TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, effectively slashing parent company ByteDance's stake to just 19.9%.

Oracle and Investors Take the Reins of TikTok USDS JV

The restructuring shifts the balance of power toward American interests. While ByteDance retains a minority share, the remaining 80.1% is now owned by a consortium of heavyweight investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX. Michael Dell's family investment firm also joined as a minority stakeholder.

This isn't just a financial pivot. Oracle won't just store US user data; the joint venture will retrain, test, and update the crucial content recommendation algorithms. This move aims to sever the technical umbilical cord between the US service and its Chinese origins.

Legislative Confusion Amidst Compliance

Despite the magnitude of the deal, lawmakers who pushed for the TikTok ban a year ago seem surprisingly out of the loop. Many remain unclear on how this joint venture actually fulfills the legal requirements they mandated. Nevertheless, the transition to TikTok USDS marks a definitive end to the company's status as a wholly-owned subsidiary of a foreign entity.