TikTok has agreed to sell its US operations to an investment group that includes Oracle, Silver Lake and UAE-based MGX. Axios. “TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC,” which includes the three companies, will own 45 percent of TikTok, while ByteDance will retain nearly 20 percent. Existing investors will continue to hold the remaining shares.

tiktok logo
The US group will take care of data protection and content moderation in the US, while maintaining the security of the algorithms. It was tasked with retraining the content recommendation algorithm on US user data to “ensure that the source of the content is not tampered with from outside”. Oracle will be responsible for auditing and verifying compliance with national security requirements.

The agreement states that the USDS Joint Venture will “operate as an independent entity” with jurisdiction over data protection in the US, while TikTok’s global US entities will manage global product interoperability along with e-commerce, advertising and marketing.

The sale will allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States while complying with the Protecting Americans from Foreign Enemies Controlled Apps Act of 2024. The law required TikTok parent ByteDance to sell TikTok’s US operations to a non-Chinese company or be banned from operating in the United States.

TikTok was briefly banned in January, but Donald Trump signed an executive order extending it back. The ban has since been extended several times to allow more time for a deal to be struck. The contract is to enter into force on January 22.

Popular stories

iPhone 18 Pro features leaked in new report, including under-screen Face ID

According to a new report by The Information’s Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu, next year’s iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will feature Face ID under the screen and the front camera will be moved to the upper left corner of the screen. As a result of these changes, the report states that the iPhone 18 Pro models will not have the pill-shaped Dynamic Island cutout at the top of the screen….

An early iOS 26 software leak reveals dozens of Apple’s upcoming features

Last week, software from an early iOS 26 iPhone prototype was leaked, giving us a glimpse into future Apple devices and iOS features. In our previous article, we recapped the device codenames and now we have a list of some of the most significant feature flags that were found in the software code. In some cases, it’s obvious what the function flags refer to, while some are more…

iOS 26.3 Beta 1 Features: What’s New So Far

Apple is testing iOS 26.3, the next version of iOS 26 that will launch around January. Since iOS 26.3 testing takes place over the holidays, it’s a smaller update with fewer features than we’ve seen in previous betas. We’ve rounded up what’s new so far, and if we come across any more features, we’ll add more betas to our list. Transferring to Android Apple makes it easy…

Apple Leak confirms work on foldable iPhone, AirTag 2 and dozens of other devices

Last week, Macworld shared details about unreleased Apple devices and future iOS features. This week we learned where the information came from, plus we have more insights from the leak. It turns out that a prototype Apple device with an early version of iOS 26 was sold and the person who bought it shared the software. The OS has version number 23A5234w and the first…

Apple Music ChatGPT integration is now active

A dedicated Apple Music app for ChatGPT is now available, allowing ChatGPT to make music recommendations and create playlists. Apple Music can be added to ChatGPT through the Settings section of the Mac app, on the web, or in the iOS app. Apple Music is listed under the Apps option, and connecting to it requires signing in with an Apple account for authorization purposes. ChatGPT can be used to…

Apple aims to increase the popularity of the iPhone Air 2 in two ways

We’ve covered the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 17e, and iPhone Fold from The Information’s report on future iPhone models, and next up is the iPhone Air 2. The report says that Apple wants to make the iPhone Air 2 more attractive in two ways. First, Apple is apparently considering adding a second rear camera to the device, which would solve a key limitation. The current iPhone…

Apple is developing an iMac Pro with an M5 Max chip

Apple is developing a high-end iMac with an M5 Max chip, according to information from leaked internal software. For more videos, subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel. The finding comes from leaked kernel debugger files used by Apple engineers. These kernel debug set files list unreleased Apple hardware by internal identifiers such as codenames and platform names, and…

Leak reveals details of foldable iPhone

The first foldable iPhone will feature a number of design and hardware firsts for Apple, according to details shared by a Weibo leaker known as Digital Chat Station. According to a new post via machine translation, Apple is developing what a leaker describes as a “wide foldable” device, a term used to describe a horizontally oriented book-style foldable device with a large internal display….

Apple’s 2026 and 2027 product roadmap: Foldable iPhone, iPhone 18 Pro, M5 Mac and more

In recent days, there has been a flurry of rumors coming from leaked iPhone and Mac internal software and news sites like The Information. Below, we’ve got a quick recap of everything we’ve heard this week that serves as a guide to Apple’s product plans in 2026 and beyond. We’ve organized the information by probable release date, although there are some products that…