[News] China’s AI Boom Continues: Tencent Reportedly Ramps Up 2025 Capex

With ByteDance reportedly allocating up to 40 billion yuan ($5.5 billion) for AI chip purchases in China, Tencent is also set to boost its capital expenditure in 2025, according to Reuters.

The report suggests that the Chinese tech giant intends to do so to speed up AI development and infrastructure expansion. Citing President Martin Lau, Reuters notes that Tencent’s spending would rise to the “low teens” as a percentage of revenue, making AI a key investment focus.

It is worth noting that according to Calian News, Tencent has purchased a batch of new chips from NVIDIA to support the integration of DeepSeek into WeChat. Sources cited by the report indicated that Tencent’s order is worth billions of RMB.

In 2024, Tencent’s capital expenditure jumped to $10.7 billion, up from $3.4 billion the previous year, reaching 12% of total revenue, as per Reuters.

According to Bloomberg, Tencent’s projection of allocating a low-teens percentage of its 2025 revenue to capital expenditures will push its capex beyond $10 billion.

However, Tencent’s 2025 capex plan suggests spending will stay flat as a revenue percentage, signaling slower growth, as highlighted by Reuters.

In 2024, Tencent’s revenue rose 8% YoY to 660.3 billion yuan ($91.9 billion), while net profit jumped 40% to 227.2 billion yuan, according to its earnings report.

ByteDance Sets Sights on Major 2025 Capex

Notably, as per Reuters, Tencent has ramped up its AI efforts, becoming the first major Chinese tech firm to adopt DeepSeek’s technology. DeepSeek’s integration is now live across Tencent’s key platforms, including WeChat and its AI assistant, Yuanbao, the report adds.

Meanwhile, another Chinese tech giant, ByteDance, also plans to spend over 150 billion yuan ($20.64 billion) on capex this year, with a strong focus on AI, according to a Reuters report in January. The company is already the largest buyer of NVIDIA’s H20 AI chips, designed for China amid U.S. restrictions, the report suggests.

Read more

• [News] Tencent Reportedly Makes Massive NVIDIA H20 Chip Purchase for WeChat’s DeepSeek Integration
• [News] DeepSeek Adoption Reportedly Fuels NVIDIA H20 Orders, Led by Tencent, ByteDance, Alibaba

(Photo credit: Tencent)