ByteDance Profit Falls 70% as Company Plans 160B Yuan AI Chip Capex in 2026

ByteDance reported on April 20, 2026 that its net profit plummeted more than 70% in 2025, as the company poured unprecedented capital into artificial intelligence infrastructure. The company plans 160 billion yuan (~$22B USD) in capital expenditure in 2026, with over 85 billion yuan — more than 50% — earmarked for AI chips and computing infrastructure, making ByteDance one of the largest single buyers of AI compute globally. Despite the profit collapse, ByteDance's AI-first pivot is showing product results: daily calls to its Doubao AI model surpassed 120 trillion tokens by late March 2026, doubling in just three months. Doubao accumulated over 155 million weekly active users and crossed 100 million daily active users during the Lunar New Year holiday in February 2026, making it China's most widely used AI app. ByteDance's investment posture — sacrificing near-term profit for AI infrastructure dominance — mirrors the strategy of US hyperscalers Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, and signals that China's tech giants view AI compute as a strategic resource analogous to real estate or spectrum. ByteDance's revenue reached $155B in 2024 (+29% YoY) and its valuation stands at approximately $550B following the finalized TikTok US divestiture deal in January 2026.