TikTok may finally have a deal to keep it up and running for good on Americans' smartphones.
ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese owner, stated on Thursday, Dec. 18, that it had signed agreements giving majority control of the video-sharing app's U.S. operations to a group of investors, including AI and cloud computing giant Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based tech firm MGX.
However, the financial terms of the new U.S. TikTok joint venture deal remain unclear, with various news accounts indicating that the investors may hold less than 50%, or as much as 80%, of the joint venture, based on reporting from The New York Times, Reuters and Los Angeles Times.
The agreement, announced Thursday, Dec. 18, resembles a preliminary deal announced in September 2025 by President Donald Trump.
A successful deal could end several years of uncertainty for the popular Chinese-owned social media app, used obsessively by as many as 170 million Americans.
