ByteDance emerges as China's largest data centre tenant driven by AI demand

ByteDance has emerged as China’s biggest data centre tenant, accounting for roughly one-fifth of the country’s delivered capacity as artificial intelligence demand reshapes infrastructure spending, according to new estimates by research firm SemiAnalysis.

ByteDance leads China’s delivered capacity

SemiAnalysis estimates that China has more than 24GW of delivered data centre capacity, with another 20GW in the pipeline.

The research firm said ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, accounts for roughly one-fifth of that delivered capacity, making it both the country’s largest tenant and a main driver of China’s artificial intelligence buildout.

The estimate is based on SemiAnalysis’ tracking of more than 1,000 facilities in China operated by over 60 companies.

SemiAnalysis said ByteDance rents nearly all of its data centre footprint, indicating that its scale in the sector is largely held through leased capacity rather than owned infrastructure.

AI products underpin rising demand

ByteDance’s AI products include Doubao, an assistant that the company says has hundreds of millions of users, and Seedance, a video generation model.

The company’s financials remain undisclosed because it is privately held, limiting public visibility into its own capital spending.

Even so, SemiAnalysis pointed to a sharp rise in capital spending among ByteDance’s listed peers as a sign of the broader infrastructure push around AI.

Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent Holdings and Baidu spent a combined US$20 billion on capital expenditure in the second quarter, more than double the figure from a year earlier, according to the report published on Friday.

All three tech giants posted negative free cash flow in the same quarter for the first time on record.

Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

Source: South China Morning Post