ByteDance boosts AI spending 25% to $30B, prioritizes domestic chips

ByteDance has raised its AI capital expenditure budget for 2026 by 25% to 200 billion yuan ($29.4 billion), up from a previous target of 160 billion yuan set last year. The TikTok owner's increased spending comes amid skyrocketing memory chip prices and Beijing's push for technological self-reliance. According to sources cited by the South China Morning Post, a larger share of this investment will be directed toward domestically produced AI chips, reducing reliance on foreign suppliers like Nvidia.

Despite the US greenlighting exports of Nvidia chips to China, Beijing has not yet permitted local companies to import them. ByteDance is also expanding globally, receiving a $25 billion investment approval for data infrastructure in Thailand and committing €1 billion ($1.2 billion) to a data center in Finland. However, the company's AI spending still trails major US competitors: Amazon ($200B), Google/Microsoft ($190B), and Meta ($145B). The shift underscores intensifying US-China tech rivalry, with Beijing encouraging domestic chip manufacturing to challenge American dominance in AI.