On December 18, 2025, the news organization Axios published exclusive reporting that paperwork had been signed that would divest the popular short-form video application TikTok’s U.S. entity from ByteDance—its existing Chinese owner—and to a new TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, or “TikTok U.S.,” that includes Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX, among other new and existing investors.
This is the first significant development in the TikTok deal that President Donald Trump announced in September 2025, and the transaction will reportedly be complete on January 22, 2026, more than a year after the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACAA), or “TikTok ban,” went into effect.
That law should have functionally banned TikTok in America, yet President Trump refused to enforce it in an extraordinary and seemingly illegal manner. Now, as a deal heads toward the finish line, the public may have no idea if the TikTok divestment complies with the very law that required it, unless Congress acts immediately to demand the necessary information.
Will TikTok U.S complete spin off by 2026?
Source: American Progress; https://www.americanprogress.org/article/congress-must-demand-the-full-details-of-the-tiktok-deal/
