The agreement spans multiple Oracle data centers in Southeast Asia and requires around 30% of the contract value upfront, according to Financial Times. Neither Tencent nor Oracle has publicly confirmed the deal, and Reuters said it could not independently verify the report.
The more important angle is where the chips will sit: outside China. Instead of importing restricted hardware, Tencent would rent computing capacity hosted overseas, showing how Chinese AI companies are adapting infrastructure strategies around tighter access to advanced processors.
Tencent Moves AI Compute Offshore
Tencent has been aggressively increasing AI investment as it develops large language models, agentic tools and generative applications.
The reported Oracle contract would be its largest overseas compute lease and comes as Chinese technology groups continue searching for alternatives to direct chip purchases.
That pressure has intensified even as Beijing considers reopening access to some less powerful Nvidia hardware, including a potential path for ByteDance and Alibaba to buy new Nvidia AI chips.
Tencent’s move suggests overseas cloud capacity may remain valuable even if limited domestic purchases resume.
Oracle Gets Another Massive AI Customer
For Oracle, the agreement would reinforce the rapid expansion of its AI cloud business.
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure revenue recently surged 121% year over year, while the company said it had delivered more than 300,000 GPUs to customers and added 850MW of data-center capacity. That growth helped drive a sharp Oracle stock rally after its latest earnings beat.
But the scale of Oracle’s buildout is also creating financial pressure. Heavy AI infrastructure spending has contributed to negative free cash flow and rising debt, while credit markets have already shown caution toward some Oracle-linked data-center financing.
