ByteDance reallocates over RMB 20 billion AI budget to domestic chips amid H200 import delays

According to Beating Monitor, ByteDance plans to increase its AI capital expenditure this year to over RMB 200 billion, a more than 25% rise from the initial budget of RMB 160 billion discussed at the end of last year. According to the South China Morning Post, this budget is being heavily shifted toward domestic AI chips. The direct reasons for the budget increase are rising memory chip costs and the expansion of ByteDance’s AI businesses. A key contextual factor in the structure of compute procurement is that, although the U.S. government has approved NVIDIA’s exports of H200 chips to China, Chinese regulators have not yet permitted domestic companies to import them. To mitigate geopolitical risks and align with policy directives, increasing procurement of domestic chips has become a pragmatic choice. Meanwhile, ByteDance’s overseas intelligent computing infrastructure expansion is accelerating rapidly. This week, the Thai government approved a data infrastructure investment of up to $25 billion by ByteDance—far exceeding its original five-year plan of $8.8 billion. Last month, the company also announced an additional €1 billion investment in data centers in Finland. For context, last year the combined AI capital expenditures of all major Chinese internet giants totaled approximately RMB 400 billion, while this year a single company like Google or Microsoft is projected to have a budget of around $190 billion.