ByteDance raises 2026 capex by at least 25% amid AI boom, rising memory costs, sources say

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ByteDance is allocating a proportionally larger budget to domestic AI chips to mitigate geopolitical risks and heed Beijing’s call

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Coco Fengin GuangdongandBen Jiangin BeijingPublished: 2:00pm, 9 May 2026

TikTok owner ByteDance is ramping up its spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure, boosting its planned capital expenditure this year to more than 200 billion yuan (US$30 billion), according to two people familiar with the matter.

This represented an increase of at least 25 per cent compared with a preliminary plan discussed late last year that proposed AI capex of 160 billion yuan, they said.

The increase was necessary because of the company’s growing commitment to AI, as well as rising memory chip costs, one of the people said.

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Notably, ByteDance has allocated a proportionally larger budget to domestic AI chips, now a common practice among Chinese tech companies to mitigate geopolitical risks and to heed Beijing’s call to use more domestic semiconductors.

Although Washington has given US chip giant Nvidia approval to export its H200 chips to China, Beijing has not yet given the nod for local companies to import them.AdvertisementAdvertisementSelect VoiceSelect Speed0.8x0.9x1.0x1.1x1.2x1.5x1.75x00:0000:001.00x