TikTok Stays in the US: The Rise of TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC

The long-standing saga of TikTok's potential ban in the United States has reached its final chapter. The app isn't going anywhere. Instead, a new, majority U.S.-owned entity has been established to take the reins. It's a massive shift that fundamentally changes how the world's most popular video app operates on American soil.

Ownership Structure of TikTok USDS Joint Venture

The newly minted TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC now controls the U.S. operations for TikTok, CapCut, and Lemon8. While the Chinese parent company ByteDance retains a 19.9% stake, the driver's seat is now occupied by a coalition of American and international investors.

A significant 45% of the company is split between Silver Lake, Oracle, and the UAE-based MGX. The remaining 35.1% is held by a group of investors including the Dell Family Office and Susquehanna International Group. This restructuring aims to satisfy lawmakers who previously cited national security concerns, despite a lack of public evidence regarding spying.

Retraining the Algorithm for America

It's not just the owners that are changing; it's the code itself. TikTok USDS Joint Venture announced that it will use U.S. user data to retrain and update its famous recommendation algorithm. This "Americanized" version will live exclusively on Oracle’s U.S. cloud servers. This move goes beyond the previous $1.5 billion investment in Project Texas, offering a more radical separation of the U.S. ecosystem from the global one.

The leadership team is also seeing a reshuffle. While Singaporean CEO Shou Chew remains on the board, the company is led by CEO Adam Presser and a majority-American board of directors. Their mandate is clear: secure the data, manage content moderation, and ensure the "safety" of the U.S. content ecosystem.