TikTok’s US business is to be partially sold to American investors in a joint-venture deal which will see it avoid a ban in the country.

President Donald Trump had long threatened to shut down the Chinese-owned short-form video app, which has 170 million American users, in the United States over national security concerns.

Now ByteDance – owner of TikTok – has signed a deal to sell 45% of its US business to American investors Oracle and Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based MGX. It is expected to close in January. 

Another 5% will be held by other new investors, while 30.1% will be held by affiliates of existing ByteDance investors and 19.9% will be retained by ByteDance

The White House said tech giant Oracle, co-founded by Trump supporter Larry Ellison, will license a copy of TikTok’s recommendation algorithm as part of the deal. Oracle already manages TikTok’s data collected in the US.

Trump critics have said it is the latest example of affiliates of the US President being handed control of the nation’s biggest tech and media companies.

Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, wrote on Bluesky: “First Paramount/CBS and now TikTok. Trump wants to hand over even more control of what you watch to his billionaire buddies. Americans deserve to know if the president struck another backdoor deal for this billionaire takeover of TikTok.”