TikTok Creates Legal Entity to Eventually Maybe Possibly Sell to U.S. Investors (Don’t Call It a Done Deal)

According to new reports from The New York Times and Bloomberg, a new entity has been formed that will allow ByteDance to sell a majority stake in TikTok’s US operations to a group of investors outside China. After years of uncertainty over whether the app would be banned in the US, it takes a deal one step closer to completion, although TikTok was quick to note that this is not a final deal to sell the company.

According to a press release from TikTok, the entity will be called TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC and major investors include Oracle, UAE investment firm MGX and investment firm Silver Lake, which will own more than 80% of the company according to The New York Times. According to the Times, Michael Dell is also involved.

The press release announcing the new joint venture “will retrain, test, and update the content recommendation algorithms on US user data. The content recommendation algorithms will be secured in Oracle’s US cloud environment.” It’s not entirely clear what this means, but apparently there are concerns that Trump and the US government will tinker with the platform to make it more MAGA friendly.

Congress passed a bipartisan law signed by President Joe Biden in 2024 that would require TikTok to be sold to US interests or be banned in the US over national security concerns. The first deadline for the sale/ban was January 19, 2025, but President Trump extended it to April. And then Trump signed an executive order extending it again to June. When June came, it was extended again to September. After meeting that deadline, it was again extended to January 22.

Trump had no authority to extend the deadline, but he did so anyway, which seems to be a theme of this presidency. He initially tried to ban TikTok during his first term, but it got stuck in the courts and failed. Trump then did a 180 while campaigning for president in 2024, insisting that he liked TikTok because it was popular among young people and that he had a lot of supporters there who could help him win the election.

It’s entirely possible that this news is in many ways another lie, given the fact that we’ve heard about the “whole deal” several times since President Donald Trump’s second inauguration in January 2025. In October 2025, we heard the same thing. A month ago, there was a big announcement that a “framework” for a deal had been agreed.

And when Gizmodo contacted TikTok on Thursday after The New York Times first published the news, our email asked about a final deal. A company spokesperson wrote, “I saw your question and want to say that ‘deal to sale’ is not the accurate framing. Please see the language used in the press release.”