ByteDance TikTok U.S. spin-out names MGX, Oracle, Silver Lake

Who initiated, paid, or pushed the action.

• 
  Donald Trump

  Trump administration negotiated the TikTok-US operating arrangement, which closed with this January 2026 deal four months after MGX's September 2025 selection as an approved operator.

• 
  ByteDance

  Chinese parent that spun out the U.S. operation; retains a 19.9 percent stake — the legal maximum under the 2024 federal divestiture law — and licenses the recommendation algorithm to the new U.S. entity. Founded 2012; valued at $480 billion in private markets. CEO Liang Rubo; co-founder Zhang Yiming remains involved in strategy.

Who stood to gain.

• David Scott

  MGX chief strategy and safety officer; takes a seat on the new TikTok-US venture's board representing MGX's 15 percent stake.

• Egon Durban

  Silver Lake co-chief executive; takes a seat on the new TikTok-US venture's board representing Silver Lake's 15 percent stake. Also sits on the boards of Dell, G42, and Waymo.

• Kenneth Glueck

  Oracle executive vice president; takes a seat on the new TikTok-US venture's board representing Oracle's 15 percent stake.

• 
  Larry Ellison

  Oracle co-founder, executive chairman, and chief technology officer; one of the world's richest people. Indirect exposure to TikTok-US via Oracle's 15 percent stake. The NYT notes he has frequently visited the White House and Mar-a-Lago.

• 
  G42

  Emirati AI company; co-founder and part owner of MGX, gaining indirect equity exposure to TikTok-US through MGX's 15 percent stake. The NYT notes the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies under the Biden administration warned about G42's ties to large Chinese firms considered security threats; G42 has since divested some of those holdings (including in ByteDance) as part of a Microsoft partnership.

• 
  MGX

  15 percent stake — tied for the largest investor position. Emirati AI/tech investment firm founded 2024 by Mubadala and G42; chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Chief strategy and safety officer David Scott takes a seat on the new venture's board. Closing of MGX's September 2025 selection as a TikTok-US operator under the Trump-negotiated arrangement.

  MGX has paid into Trump’s orbit:

  • World Liberty Financial
• 
  Mubadala

  Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund; co-founder and part owner of MGX, gaining indirect equity exposure to TikTok-US through MGX's 15 percent stake.

• Oracle

  15 percent stake — tied for the largest investor position. Will oversee the security of Americans' data and monitor changes and updates to TikTok's recommendation technology. Has housed Americans' TikTok data on its servers since 2022. Executive vice president Kenneth Glueck takes a seat on the new venture's board.

• 
  Silver Lake

  15 percent stake — tied for the largest investor position. Menlo Park-based tech investment firm; co-CEO Egon Durban takes a seat on the new venture's board and also sits on the boards of Dell, G42, and Waymo. Silver Lake has invested in G42 since 2021 and previously teamed with MGX on the 2025 Altera acquisition; its affiliate Vantage Data Centers invested $15 billion in a Wisconsin Oracle/OpenAI data-center campus.

• TikTok US

  New American venture spun out from ByteDance to operate TikTok in the United States under the 2024 federal divestiture law; ~80 percent owned by non-Chinese investors with ByteDance retaining 19.9 percent. Licenses the TikTok recommendation algorithm from ByteDance and holds authority to moderate content on the U.S. app.