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TikTok's New US Ownership (Oracle, Silver Lake, MGX): What Changed, and What Didn't, for Brands Outside the US
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From 22 January 2026, a new majority-US-owned company — TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, with Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX as its three largest investors (15% each) and ByteDance retaining 19.9% — took control of TikTok's app, user data and algorithm in the United States. The change is US-only: TikTok's European entity, TikTok Technology Limited in Ireland, which handles Danish users' data and the EU's DSA obligations, isn't part of the deal and is unchanged.
On 22 January 2026, a deal closed that transferred control of TikTok's US operations to a new, majority-US-owned company: TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC. Per the company's own published announcement, three "managing investors" — Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi's MGX — each hold 15% of the new entity, while ByteDance retains 19.9%. The deal brings TikTok into compliance with the US "divest-or-ban" law, which prohibits US distribution of an app more than 20%-owned by a "foreign adversary" (in this case, China).
The part that matters most for a brand or creator outside the US isn't the ownership structure itself — it's what the deal doesn't cover. Based on research carried out for this article on 25 August 2026, nothing in TikTok's own announcement, in independent reporting, or in Wikipedia's own sourcing indicates the deal changes anything about TikTok's European entity, Danish users' data handling, or TikTok's obligations under the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA).
| Owner | Stake |
|---|---|
| Oracle | 15% |
| Silver Lake | 15% |
| MGX (Abu Dhabi state-owned investment fund) | 15% |
| ByteDance | 19.9% |
| Other investors (including Dell Family Office, a Susquehanna-affiliated entity, Alpha Wave Partners, Revolution, Dragoneer, a General Atlantic-affiliated entity, and affiliates of ByteDance's existing investors) | Remaining ~35%, combined |
Sources don't fully agree on exactly how that remaining ~35% splits between "new" US investors and affiliates of ByteDance's existing investors — some reports describe a 50%/30.1%/19.9% split across three broad categories, others describe it differently. Because the figures don't reconcile across sources, they're presented here combined rather than with false precision. The three confirmed 15% stakes for Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX, and ByteDance's 19.9%, are consistently confirmed across TikTok's own announcement and independent coverage.
The board has seven members with a US majority. Adam Presser is CEO of the joint venture.
Per TikTok's own announcement, the joint venture has authority over "data, apps and the algorithm" for US operations, specifically:
The announcement itself states the deal enables "more than 200 million Americans and 7.5 million businesses" to keep using TikTok, and that "interoperability" means US creators remain discoverable globally — in other words, the algorithm license and data control are geographically scoped to the US portion of the platform, not a global restructuring.
This point isn't stated as a single sentence by either TikTok or the European Commission — it follows from combining two separately confirmed facts:
Combined, this means: TikTok Technology Limited remains TikTok's legal counterparty for Danish users, Danish advertisers and EU regulators. The platform's annual systemic risk assessments, transparency reports and DSA obligations continue under the same entity as before 22 January 2026. The algorithm Danish users see in their feed runs on TikTok's global/European operations — not the "retrained," US-controlled version that, per the joint venture's own description, applies only to US users.
| Before 22 January 2026 | After 22 January 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Who controls TikTok's app, data and algorithm in the US | ByteDance (China) | TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC — majority US-owned (Oracle, Silver Lake, MGX 15% each; ByteDance 19.9%) |
| Who controls TikTok in Denmark/the EU | TikTok Technology Limited (Ireland), a ByteDance group company | Unchanged — still TikTok Technology Limited, Ireland |
| Algorithm shown to Danish/European users | TikTok's global algorithm, operated by TikTok Technology Limited | Unchanged — the joint venture's "retrained" algorithm is licensed to and used only by the US entity |
| DSA/VLOP obligations toward the EU | Sit with TikTok Technology Limited | Unchanged |
| Apps covered by the deal itself | — | TikTok, CapCut and Lemon8, but only for the US market |
Some news coverage has framed the story as if "TikTok" broadly changed owners — without clarifying that it applies only to the US portion of the platform. For a Danish brand reading a headline that TikTok is "no longer Chinese-owned," the natural but incorrect conclusion is that this also applies to the platform's European operations, Danish users' data protection, or the company's obligations toward the EU. None of the sources reviewed for this article support that reading.
A separate, unconfirmed detail worth knowing if it surfaces in a news article: several outlets (citing Wall Street Journal sourcing, corroborated by multiple independent publications) report that the investor group will collectively pay the US government up to $10 billion in connection with the deal. Neither the White House, the US Treasury, nor the companies involved have officially confirmed the figure — a US senator has publicly raised questions about it. Whether or not it's confirmed, that figure relates only to the US side of the transaction and has no documented connection to TikTok's European operations.
IF your brand only advertises and works with creators in Denmark/the EU → based on the confirmed record, this change has no practical effect on your campaigns, data flow, or GDPR responsibilities today. TikTok Technology Limited remains your counterparty.
IF your brand also runs campaigns targeting US consumers via TikTok → worth knowing the ownership structure, because US data-access and content-moderation law now applies to a different, US-controlled entity for that part of your campaign.
IF you're generally concerned about platform risk — political intervention, a ban, an acquisition → this case is a concrete example of why it's worth spreading risk across platforms; see reducing platform risk in influencer marketing for a framework that doesn't depend on predicting this kind of event.
IF you're considering changing campaign strategy based on the news alone → wait for a confirmed change to TikTok's own terms, Ads Manager, or data processing agreement before acting. No confirmed change of that kind has been found for EU advertisers as of this research.
In Make Influence's experience, the biggest risk from a story like this isn't the event itself — it's a brand overreacting to a headline that got blurred somewhere between "US operations" and "TikTok" generally. Our recommendation is to hold onto what's actually confirmed: for a Danish brand working with Danish or European creators and advertising to a Danish audience, TikTok's legal counterparty, data-processing basis, and algorithm are, as of this article, unchanged. What's genuinely useful to take from this is the broader principle: platform ownership can shift faster than most brands track, and a campaign strategy that doesn't depend entirely on one platform surviving in its current form is a more resilient strategy generally — see TikTok vs Instagram for influencer marketing for how that thinking concretely shapes platform choice.
Partly, and only in the US. ByteDance retains 19.9% of the new US joint venture entity and remains the full owner of TikTok's global and European entities, including TikTok Technology Limited, which serves Danish users.
No confirmed change to the ad platform, terms, or data processing agreement for EU/Danish advertisers has been found in connection with this deal.
No, the two topics are unrelated. TikTok Shop's European rollout follows its own, separate timeline — see TikTok Shop LIVE Shopping with influencers.
The deal closed on 22 January 2026 and was announced by TikTok itself the following day, 23 January 2026.
No. The figure comes from Wall Street Journal sourcing, cited by multiple independent outlets, but neither the White House, the Treasury, nor the companies have officially confirmed it.
Not based on what's confirmed here. The "retrained" algorithm and new data-handling rules apply, per the joint venture's own description, only to US users — a Danish creator's feed continues to run on TikTok's European operations.
No. TikTok's Creator Rewards Program country list — which doesn't include Denmark — predates the USDS deal and isn't affected by it; it's a separate, product-level eligibility decision, not an ownership question.
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