Tencent rents 100,000 Nvidia-class AI chips via Oracle abroad in $7B five-year deal
kimmonismus · x · 2026-10-05
Tencent has found a legal way to use American AI chips it cannot buy: renting them abroad. Per the Financial Times, the Chinese internet giant signed a five-year, $7 billion lease for access to roughly 100,000 advanced AI chips across several Oracle data centers in Southeast Asia — its largest overseas lease ever.
About 30% ($2.1 billion) was paid up front, and the commitment has already weighed on Tencent's Q2 free cash flow.
The thread also cites another route: federal prosecutors charged Greg Lui, owner of Earthmade Computer in California, with smuggling $300M+ in export-controlled GPU servers to China — key components are still flowing in illegally while China builds its domestic chip industry.
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