TikTok Owner ByteDance Plans $12 Billion AI Chip Investing Spree; Trump Unveils „Stargate” Project

Shortly after President Donald Trump revealed the „Stargate” project—a joint venture between OpenAI, Softbank, and Oracle aimed at investing tens of billions of dollars to bolster America’s artificial intelligence infrastructure—a new report from the Financial Times stated that ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, is planning a $12 billion investment spree on AI infrastructure this year.

Sources familiar with ByteDance’s plans indicate that the Chinese company plans to purchase $5.5 billion in AI chips from domestic chip companies this year, with additional plans to spend $6.8 billion on chips from overseas suppliers to enhance its AI models.

About 60% of ByteDance’s domestic chip orders would go to Huawei and Cambricon, while the rest would be spent on Nvidia chips that abide by the US Commerce Department’s restricted trade list. Sources also noted that Beijing asked tech companies to purchase at least a third of all chips from domestic suppliers.

The move by ByteDance to boost its AI capacity comes as Trump saved the Chinese social media video app from being banned in the US – after going dark for 12 hours – with an executive order Monday that gives it a 75-day extension to make a deal with new US ownership.

On Tuesday evening, Trump told reporters at the White House: „I’m open to Elon Musk buying TikTok if he wants it. I’m also open to Larry Ellison buying it. You’re a rich guy, Larry, do you want it? I want then to do a 50/50 JV deal with America. With us, it’s worth trillions. Without us, nothing. What do you think, Larry?”

Oracle’s Larry Ellison responded: „Sounds like a good deal to me, Mr. President!”

TRUMP: “I’m open to Elon Musk buying TikTok if he wants it. I’m also open to Larry Ellison buying it. You’re a rich guy, Larry, do you want it? I want then to do a 50/50 JV deal with America. With us, it’s worth trillions. Without us, nothing. What do you think, Larry?”… pic.twitter.com/it3siFamIT

— Autism Capital (@AutismCapital) January 21, 2025

Also, Trump also announced the Stargate Project.

BREAKING: President Trump has just announced Stargate Project, a new American company which will invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure in the United States.

Oracle’s Larry Ellison, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, and OpenAI Sam Altman were… pic.twitter.com/f0SL7zby2l

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) January 21, 2025

Thank you to President Trump for announcing Stargate Project with us today. $500B for AI data centers for OpenAI, built in the US. https://t.co/vwBPeypPQ6 pic.twitter.com/M5QJ1HOKjI

— Greg Brockman (@gdb) January 22, 2025

News of Stargate continued to push Oracle shares higher, up nearly 9% in premarket trading.

Data from Omdia shows that tech firms spent $229 billion on servers in 2024, with Microsoft leading the charge with $31 billion, followed by Amazon at $26 billion.