ByteDance occupies roughly a fifth of China’s delivered data centre capacity, and it rents nearly all of it, according to research firm SemiAnalysis. That makes the TikTok owner the key customer for every wholesale data centre operator in China, the firm said. It published the estimate in a report on Friday.
The estimate comes from SemiAnalysis’ new China Datacenter Model, which tracks more than 1,000 facilities run by over 60 operators. By its count, China has more than 24GW of data centre capacity. That is more than the roughly 14GW across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the firm said.
“The biggest tenant files no 10-K. Several of the largest landlords have never listed,” SemiAnalysis wrote.
Capex has doubled
Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu spent a combined $20bn on capital expenditure in the second quarter, the report said. That is more than double the figure a year earlier. All three posted negative free cash flow in the same quarter, a first on record.
ByteDance is private and does not publish its spending. With ByteDance included, the four companies spent roughly $35bn in 2024 and more than $50bn in 2025, SemiAnalysis estimates. They are on course for $100bn this year. ByteDance’s Doubao assistant serves 345 million monthly users, the firm said.
GDS and VNET, the only two Chinese data centre landlords listed in the US, signed about 1.3GW of wholesale orders in the first half of 2026. Even so, they won only about a third of ByteDance and Alibaba orders from 2024 to 2026, the report said.
Built fast, and moving west
China routinely delivers 100MW facilities in under 12 months, SemiAnalysis said. Permits before construction take three to six months, against 12 to 13 months in the US.
Much of the new construction is going inland, under a 2022 policy called “Eastern Data, Western Compute”. Inner Mongolia has become the default site for large AI campuses, with power at roughly half the price of China’s biggest cities, the firm said. ByteDance runs its own campuses in Datong, Wuhu and Inner Mongolia, and registered two entities in Ningxia in July.
Older capacity is a different story. Legacy retail racks near the big cities run at 30% to 50% use and are often unfit for AI servers, SemiAnalysis said.
“The AI era is wholesale. The legacy retail stock is not participating,” the firm wrote.
Chinese hyperscalers are also leasing more abroad. SemiAnalysis expects their overseas leased capacity to double from 2026 to 2029, to nearly 4GW. ByteDance also brought in nearly 75% of Nscale’s 2025 sales, the FT reported. At home, Beijing may reportedly let ByteDance and Alibaba buy new Nvidia chips.