What You Need To Know About TikTok's New US Owners

Most of Gen Z can remember the day that TikTok went dark. On January 18th, 2025, the 170 million TikTok users in the United States were met with a "temporarily unavailable" message upon opening the app. This was the result of a U.S. House of Representatives bill banning the app due to parent company ByteDance's supposed connection to the Chinese government. TikTok came back the next day, but with a 75-day deadline, and the short video app had to be sold to an American company to stay alive. That has finally happened, with President Trump signing an executive order outlining a transfer to a U.S.-based consortium, allowing Americans to keep using the app.

On Thursday, September 25th, 2025, Trump announced that he'd come to an agreement with China's president, Xi Jinping, allowing TikTok to continue operating in the United States — but separate from ByteDance. U.S. investors have purchased TikTok from ByteDance and will operate the app, including a licensed copy of the app's popular algorithm. The American version will be 80% owned by American companies and 20% owned by ByteDance and other Chinese investors.

Under the new plan, which Trump hinted at in January 2025, TikTok will be overseen by a seven-member board of directors, six of whom are from the United States. The White House states that these board members are cybersecurity and national security experts. The investors are led by Oracle, a U.S.-based software company that will provide the app with cloud service and control its algorithm. In addition to Oracle's co-founder, Larry Ellison, other investors include Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Dell CEO Michael Dell.

Oracle is an information technology company that was founded in 1977 by Ellison. For the past 50 years, Oracle has become known for its information technology solutions and has invested in open source technologies. Its products are focused on data security and managing databases. Ellison served as Oracle's CEO until 2024 and is now its Chief Technology Officer. Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch are the founder and current chairman, respectively, of News Corp, the company behind Fox News, and other media conglomerates. Silver Lake is an equity firm that largely invests in technology companies, including Waymo, Carta, Airtable, and more. On top of owning the popular computer technology company, Dell is an angel investor with stakes in Goodleap, Observe, and other startups.

Leading up to this deal, TikTok's future in America was in limbo as lawmakers claimed that the Chinese government could use the app to steal American user data or spread propaganda. While TikTok's CEO, Chew Shou Zi, denied these claims — and noted that he's personally not tied to China's communist party, given he's a Singaporean — the Supreme Court had upheld the ban in January 2025. Trump postponed the ban on his first day in office, claiming it played a part in getting him elected. Big-time Republican donor Jeff Yass, who also owns a stake in Truth Social, is a major ByteDance investor and is expected to be one of a handful of backers who will contribute equity to the United States' version of TikTok after this deal.

After the blackout, social media users noted that certain content seemed harder to find, and their own videos criticizing Trump were getting taken down. Any censorship concerns users have had will likely come to the forefront once more, given Fox News' involvement. Teenagers and young adults have expressed more fear over censorship than about their data being accessed by the Chinese government, but this sale at least means they won't have to switch to one of the best TikTok alternatives.