TikTok Implements American Data Sovereignty Through Infrastructure Restructuring

TikTok confirmed Thursday that it has finalized an ownership restructuring establishing a majority American-owned entity with complete American data sovereignty through infrastructure changes. The agreement emphasizes physical control over data storage and processing.
ByteDance, the Beijing-based technology company behind TikTok, has agreed to reduce its ownership stake to 19.9% in the American entity, while US investors control 80.1%. Oracle’s 15% stake brings critical cloud infrastructure capabilities enabling data sovereignty, alongside Silver Lake and MGX at 15% each, plus Michael Dell’s firm.
The deal addresses congressional concerns about data sovereignty—ensuring American user data physically resides in America under American control. Ownership changes alone don’t guarantee data sovereignty if infrastructure remains foreign-controlled or if data flows to foreign servers. True data sovereignty requires American infrastructure hosting American data, with technical controls preventing foreign access regardless of corporate relationships.
Leadership of the American entity falls to Adam Presser as CEO, with oversight from a seven-member board including experts who can evaluate data sovereignty implementation. The governance structure ensures ongoing verification that data actually remains under American control. Shou Chew participates as a board member.
The new US entity achieves data sovereignty through infrastructure restructuring: American user data migrates to American-controlled servers, processing occurs in American data centers, backups remain in American facilities, and technical controls prevent data export. Oracle’s infrastructure capabilities enable this physical data sovereignty. Algorithm operations occur on American infrastructure using American-resident data. Enhanced security prevents unauthorized access that could circumvent physical controls. Software integrity verification ensures systems respect data residency requirements. Both governments approved this data sovereignty through infrastructure approach.