Inside the TikTok Truce: US Owners, Oracle on Guard, and a Leased Algorithm

After months of drama, the White House says a deal to keep TikTok running in the US could land by week’s end. The outline is finally clear: TikTok’s American business will be spun into a new US-based entity, owned and operated by a consortium of mostly American investors, while Oracle takes the lead on safeguarding data and policing the all-important recommendation engine.

Here’s the gist in plain English. Washington is backing a bid that shifts control of TikTok’s US operations to a new company with a majority-American board. ByteDance, TikTok’s Beijing-founded parent, is set to keep a sub-20% stake; roughly 80% would sit with American investors. President Donald Trump has been name-dropping potential backers — Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, and the Murdochs among them — alongside firms like Silver Lake and Oracle. Unlike some recent deals, the US government won’t take a board seat, equity stake, or “golden share.”

The algorithm — the secret sauce that decides what you watch — has been the sticking point. Chinese law treats it like crown-jewel tech, while US law now requires a clean operational break from ByteDance. The compromise, according to senior officials, is a licensed copy: a duplicate of TikTok’s recommendation system will be leased to the US venture, retrained on American user data inside the United States, and walled off from China. Oracle will supervise the retraining, monitor changes, and act as the security partner. In short: ByteDance can’t tinker, and Beijing can’t peek.

That data moat matters. Americans’ information will sit in a purpose-built cloud environment on US soil, run by Oracle. A national-security-credentialed board will oversee the business, and while ByteDance can appoint one director to the seven-member board, that person won’t sit on the security committee. Day-to-day, the app should feel the same. Users in the US will still see videos from around the world, and creators overseas will still reach American audiences. No need to re-download the app, no fractured feeds.

All of this flows from a 2024 divest-or-ban law demanding that TikTok’s US arm be controlled by Americans and cut off from ByteDance’s operations. Trump has already postponed enforcement four times — the latest extension adds another 120 days — to give negotiators time to ink the details. A call between Trump and China’s Xi Jinping cleared the way last week; ByteDance publicly thanked both leaders and said it will follow the rules to keep TikTok available in the US.

Don’t expect the politics to evaporate. Some in Congress are already eyeing the lease arrangement, arguing the statute bars any “cooperation” on an algorithm, even if “operation” stays American. The White House answer is that the code’s copy will live and evolve here, under US control, with Oracle validating every update. Critics may still push for a harder break; supporters will say the security and governance guardrails achieve the law’s intent without breaking the app.

For users and creators, the near-term takeaway is simple: TikTok isn’t going dark. For the new company’s owners, the hard part starts now — proving the safeguards work, keeping Washington satisfied, keeping Beijing at bay, and keeping the For You feed as addictive as ever.

With input from CNBC, Business Insider, the New York Times, and Axios.