China's Tencent leases 100,000 AI chips from US firm Oracle in $7 billion deal

Tencent, a Chinese tech giant, signed its largest overseas lease deal with US cloud provider Oracle to access about 100,000 advanced AI chips not available in China. The five-year lease, agreed in 2026, spans multiple Oracle data centers in Southeast Asia and is estimated to be worth US$7 billion with a 30% upfront payment. The deal supports Tencent's AI expansion, including its new image-generation model. Reuters could not verify the report, and both companies did not comment. This move reflects Chinese firms' efforts to secure AI chips amid US export restrictions.