To narrow the gap with U.S. tech giants in the field of artificial intelligence, ByteDance is significantly increasing its AI investment budget. According to the Financial Times and multiple sources, ByteDance has initially formulated its capital expenditure plan for 2026, expecting to invest about 23 billion US dollars (approximately 160 billion Chinese yuan) in AI infrastructure, which is an expansion from the projected 150 billion Chinese yuan in 2025.

ByteDance, Toutiao

About half of the total budget, approximately 85 billion Chinese yuan, will be specifically used for purchasing advanced semiconductor process AI processors. Despite supply uncertainties caused by geopolitical factors, ByteDance has shown a strong desire for expansion. It is reported that if approved, ByteDance plans to purchase the first batch of 20,000 NVIDIA H200 chips, with each chip costing about 20,000 US dollars. If export restrictions are eased in the future, the total capital expenditure in 2026 could rise further.

Although 23 billion US dollars is already a huge amount in the industry, it still lags behind the Silicon Valley giants. Data shows that Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta alone invested more than 300 billion US dollars in AI data centers in 2025.

Although ByteDance had previously stated that some details of the expenditure in anonymous reports were "inaccurate," recent frequent computing power tenders and energy cooperation agreements (such as the collaboration between Youqi and Volcano Engine) indicate that it is entering the "explosive phase" of AI construction comprehensively.