A group of American investors has signed a deal to take control of TikTok’s operations in the United States. The investors include Oracle, led by Larry Ellison, who is known to be a Trump ally.
Under the terms of the agreement, half of the newly formed entity managing TikTok in the U.S. will be owned by this consortium, which includes Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, and the UAE state-backed investment firm MGX. Approximately one-third of the operation will continue to be owned by existing investors in ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, while ByteDance will retain about 20 percent ownership.
As part of the deal, TikTok’s U.S. algorithm will be retrained using data solely from American users, and the investor group will establish content moderation guidelines. However, ByteDance will still own the underlying algorithm with oversight from American auditors, according to an internal memo reviewed by NPR and sources familiar with the arrangement.
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