Tencent reportedly agrees to $7 billion Oracle chip lease

Tencent has reportedly agreed to lease access to about 100,000 advanced artificial intelligence chips through Oracle data centers in Southeast Asia under a five-year arrangement estimated at about $7 billion. The agreement, which has not been confirmed by either company, would give Tencent additional computing capacity for its AI development without requiring it to build the hosting facilities itself. The reported terms include an upfront payment of roughly 30% of the estimated value. The details come from people familiar with the matter cited in reporting by the Financial Times. Reuters said it could not independently verify the agreement. Tencent and Oracle had not publicly commented on it in the supplied reports. The chips are described as advanced hardware that cannot be purchased directly in China under current U.S. export restrictions. Leasing computing capacity at data centers outside China has become one way for Chinese technology companies to access hardware for training and running AI systems. The reports do not establish whether the arrangement will face any further regulatory review or what specific chips it would use.