ByteDance는 내부 AI 인프라 및 컴퓨팅 확장 자금 조달을 위해 은행 대출 약 2,000억 위안을 확보하고 있다.
ByteDance, one of China’s leading internet conglomerates, has nearly finalized a $29.6 billion (approximately 198.6 billion RMB) syndicated loan. Originally targeting a $20 billion raise, the company expanded the facility following overwhelming demand from participating banks. The transaction ranks as the second-largest U.S. dollar-denominated loan in Asia this year, trailing only SoftBank Group’s $40 billion bridge loan signed in March. Market consensus holds that ByteDance is stockpiling capital for the intensifying “AI arms race.” Earlier this year, the company also divested its core gaming asset, Moonton, in a deal valued at $6 billion to bolster its balance sheet.
According to media reports, ByteDance is considering raising its 2025 capital expenditure to $70 billion to expand data centers and other AI infrastructure. If conditions hold, AI-related capital outlays could climb to $100 billion in 2026.
Rumors first surfaced in June regarding ByteDance’s financing plans. Bloomberg reported that the company held preliminary talks with multiple banks to secure approximately $20 billion. Three months later, the outcome far exceeded initial projections. Driven by robust bank subscriptions, ByteDance significantly scaled up the facility. On September 3, Bloomberg cited sources stating that ByteDance had secured the $29.6 billion loan, with proceeds designated for general corporate purposes.
The deal marks the second-largest U.S. dollar loan in Asia this year, again behind SoftBank’s March $40 billion bridge facility. However, the agreement remains unsigned as banks finalize their respective allocations. The transaction attracted over $30 billion in commitments ahead of the book-building deadline, signaling strong institutional appetite and potentially alleviating the sluggish Asian loan market, which endured its weakest first half in 16 years.
Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase are acting as joint arrangers for the three-year facility, which includes an option to extend up to five years. Banks have offered highly competitive terms, placing the interest rate among the lowest for comparable loans by Chinese technology firms. The initial pricing is set at SOFR plus 68 basis points, subject to adjustment if the term is extended. This represents a meaningful improvement over ByteDance’s previous offshore borrowing rate of SOFR plus 85 basis points.
This also stands as ByteDance’s largest overseas borrowing to date. The company last accessed global credit markets in 2024, raising roughly $10.8 billion through approximately 20 financial institutions. In less than two years, its borrowing capacity has nearly tripled.
As global AI competition escalates, ByteDance is continuously deepening its AI positioning. Bloomberg reported that insiders indicated discussions to push 2025 capital expenditure to as high as $70 billion, more than double last year’s total, earmarked for data center and AI infrastructure expansion. Additional reports suggest that if macroeconomic and commercial conditions remain favorable, AI-focused capital outlays could surge to $100 billion next year.
Radar Finance notes that ByteDance’s current AI investment trajectory is aligning with the capital expenditure levels of global hyperscale data center leaders. In the United States, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta are projected to spend a combined $725 billion on capital expenditures in 2026, a 77% increase from $410 billion in 2025. Microsoft alone expects capex to reach $190 billion, doubling year-over-year. Alphabet’s guidance has been raised to $180–190 billion, while Meta’s target sits between $125–145 billion.
To support such massive outlays, ByteDance is proactively scaling back non-core operations to concentrate resources on AI-centric initiatives. In 2023, Dongchedi, an automotive vertical spun out from Toutiao, was formally separated from the ByteDance group and completed a roughly $600 million financing round in 2024, with plans for an independent IPO. Concurrently, the AI chatbot Doubao launched in 2023, and ByteDance’s 2024 AI capital expenditure reached 80 billion RMB.
In March, Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games Group finalized an agreement to acquire all equity in Shanghai Moonton, ByteDance’s key gaming subsidiary, for over $6 billion. Recently, ByteDance has further consolidated its AI operations by splitting Feishu, integrating its components into both the Doubao product team and the Volcano Engine division.
During an internal meeting on August 6, ByteDance CEO Liu Rubo addressed the restructuring. He noted that AI-driven productivity gains have outpaced expectations, making the enterprise sector increasingly critical. Over 90% of Feishu’s new customers now simultaneously purchase AI-enabled features. Liu emphasized that the integration positions the company to better develop premium office and productivity AI products and serve B-end clients amid massive AI opportunities.
Addressing concerns about ByteDance’s large language models lagging behind overseas competitors, Liu stated the company will persist with in-house development, strengthen foundational capabilities, accept short-term gaps, and commit to long-term optimization. Founder Zhang Yiming made a rare public statement, asserting that the company “should be willing to sacrifice some short-term returns for long-term goals.” He stressed that model development demands long-termism and delayed gratification, rather than leveraging third-party outputs to chase temporary leaderboard rankings.
Nevertheless, sustained and massive AI investments have undeniably strained ByteDance’s near-term financials. An April report by First Financial indicated that ByteDance’s full-year net profit for 2025 fell by over 70% year-over-year due to heavy AI spending. Based on a 2024 net profit of approximately $33 billion, ByteDance’s 2025 earnings would hover around $9 billion.
Subsequently, Douyin Vice President Li Liang clarified that while the company’s second-half operating margin experienced a slight dip due to slowing Douyin e-commerce growth and increased investments in emerging ventures, the decline was far less severe than reported. Li added that excluding fluctuations in preferred stock and option costs, overall revenue and profit continued to grow, with TikTok’s e-commerce segment and emerging businesses showing positive momentum.
In reality, alongside ByteDance, numerous Chinese internet giants are aggressively seeking capital to fuel the competitive “AI arms race.” On August 24, Alibaba announced on the HKEX that it completed a rights issue priced at HK$112.70 per ordinary share, totaling 710 million shares. Net proceeds amounted to approximately HK$79.7 billion, allocated entirely to investing in full-stack AI capabilities and strengthening AI infrastructure. Roughly 60% will fund global compute infrastructure expansion to meet surging client demand, while 40% will accelerate the construction of ultra-scale AI data centers and upgrade traditional cloud infrastructure—including storage, databases, and high-performance networks—to support a transition to an Agentic Cloud architecture.
This marks Alibaba’s first rights issue since returning to the Hong Kong listing in 2019, achieving oversubscription within an hour of launch. Earlier, in July 2025, Alibaba issued approximately HK$12 billion in zero-coupon exchangeable bonds. In September, it floated $3.2 billion in zero-coupon convertible senior notes, with roughly 80% of net proceeds directed toward cloud infrastructure.
Tencent and Kuaishou have similarly turned to debt issuance. In June, Tencent issued $2.45 billion in bonds and ¥15 billion in dim-sum bonds, totaling nearly $4.7 billion—its largest issuance since 2020. Funds will support existing debt refinancing and general corporate purposes, including AI product development. In January, Kuaishou raised $1.5 billion and $500 million in dim-sum bonds, primarily for general corporate use and to bolster overseas cash reserves supporting its global expansion strategy.
Prior to this, Kuaishou disclosed during an investor call that its 2025 total capital expenditure is expected to exceed ¥14 billion, with over two-thirds explicitly allocated to its self-developed AI platform, Kling. The company plans to maintain a similar capex structure in 2026, firmly doubling down on AI infrastructure.
As ByteDance, Alibaba, and other industry leaders continue to inject unprecedented capital into AI initiatives, the subsequent competitive landscape of China’s AI battle remains a focal point. Radar Finance will continue to monitor developments closely.