Who’s grabbing control of TikTok’s US assets?
On Thursday, TikTok told staffers it had signed a deal to form a joint venture for its US business with a group of investors, according to an internal memo sent by CEO Shou Chew, which was viewed by Business Insider. The company expects the deal to close in January late, per the memo.
Three managing investors will each hold a 15% stake in the new venture: Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX.
Five percent of the US company will go to an unnamed group of new investors, while ByteDance, TikTok’s owner, will maintain a 19.9% minority stake — the maximum allowed by the divest-or-ban law that spurred TikTok’s sale. The remaining 30.1% will be controlled by an undisclosed group of existing ByteDance investors, according to the memo.
In September, President Donald Trump said Larry Ellison and his company, Oracle, would be involved in a $14 billion deal to buy TikTok’s US business. At the time, Trump mentioned billionaires Rupert Murdoch and Michael Dell would also play a role, but it is unclear if they are involved in the current deal.
Oracle, which currently works with TikTok on data security, is expected to continue to be its “trusted security partner” tasked with safeguarding “sensitive US user data,” Chew wrote in his memo to staffers.
TikTok’s new US owners will retrain the content recommendation algorithm on US user data “to ensure the content feed is free from outside manipulation,” per the memo.
TikTok did not respond to requests for comment. The White House referred Business Insider to TikTok. A spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, when asked about the deal, referred press to “competent authorities for anything specific,” noting that “China’s position on TikTok is consistent and clear.”
Here are the key players in TikTok’s US business going forward:
Larry Ellison’s Oracle will take a 15% stake in the new joint venture.
Software giant Oracle will take a 15% stake in TikTok’s US joint venture, according to the memo viewed by Business Insider.
Prior to the recent deal, Oracle was already working closely with TikTok’s US Data Security division (USDS). Oracle has stored US TikTok users’ data for years as a safeguard for potential data leaks.
Larry Ellison, who is also a financial participant in a bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery’s business, is the chairman and cofounder of Oracle and a longtime Trump ally.
Oracle did not respond to requests for comment.
Abu Dhabi’s MGX is one of three ‘managing investors’ taking over TikTok US
MGX is a state-owned investment firm in Abu Dhabi.
According to the internal memo, it will also take a 15% stake in the new TikTok entity as one of three managing investors.
The firm is focused on AI.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal ruling family, is the firm’s chairman. The fund participated in OpenAI’s $6.6 billion investment round in 2024.
MGX did not respond to requests for comment.
Private equity firm Silver Lake will also hold 15% of TikTok US.
Silver Lake is a tech-focused private equity firm.
The firm will take a 15% stake in the new TikTok entity, per the internal memo.
Its current investments include Klarna, Carta, Dell Technologies, Genies, and Waymo, per the firm’s website. Previous investments include Airbnb, Twitter, and Tesla.
Egon Durban and Greg Mondre both act as co-CEO and managing partner at the private equity firm.
Silver Lake declined to comment.
ByteDance’s existing investors will hold 30.1% of the new entity.
According to the memo, “affiliates of certain existing investors” in ByteDance will hold a combined 30.1% of the new entity.
Private equity giant KKR and venture capital firms, such as Sequoia Capital and SoftBank, have previously invested in ByteDance. It’s not yet clear which of these investors will retain shares in the new US entity.
KKR, Sequoia Capital, and SoftBank did not respond to requests for comment.
A mystery group of new investors will own 5%
While 95% of ownership in the new TikTok US joint venture will fall under Oracle, Silver Lake, MGX, ByteDance, and its earlier investors, the remaining 5% stake will pass to an unnamed group of “new investors,” per TikTok’s memo.
Trump previously said that billionaires Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch may be involved in the TikTok deal, so it’s possible that they could fall within this mystery investor set.
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