One company now sits behind roughly one in every five units of data centre capacity in China. The Next Web reports that, according to research firm SemiAnalysis, ByteDance accounts for about one-fifth of the country's delivered capacity, and it leases nearly all of it.
Key takeaways
China has more than 24 gigawatts of delivered data centre capacity, and ByteDance occupies about a fifth of it.
ByteDance rents almost everything, which makes it the key customer for China's wholesale data centre operators.
Combined capital spending by ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu is projected to reach US$100 billion in 2026.
What is wholesale data centre capacity?
Wholesale means a tenant leases a whole building or campus from an operator. Retail colocation means renting racks in a shared facility. AI workloads need large blocks of power in one place, so they favour wholesale.
The numbers
SemiAnalysis's new China Datacenter Model tracks more than 1,000 facilities run by over 60 companies. Its headline findings, as reported on 29 September 2026:
China's delivered capacity exceeds 24GW. That's more than Europe, the Middle East and Africa combined, at roughly 14GW.
Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu spent US$20 billion on capital expenditure in the second quarter alone, double the figure a year earlier. All three reported negative free cash flow for the quarter.
With ByteDance included, the four companies spent about US$35 billion in 2024 and more than US$50 billion in 2025.
Rent, don't own
ByteDance's model is different from the American hyperscalers, which tend to build and own. By leasing, it can expand quickly without carrying every building on its own balance sheet.
The demand is reshaping the operators. US-listed GDS and VNET signed 1.3GW of wholesale orders in the first half of 2026, yet won only about a third of ByteDance and Alibaba's orders between 2024 and 2026. SemiAnalysis's summary is that the AI era is wholesale. Older retail sites near big cities are running at 30% to 50% utilisation and aren't suited to AI.
What to keep in mind
These are estimates from one research firm's model, not audited company disclosures. ByteDance is private and doesn't publish this data.
Why it matters
Chinese cloud and AI companies are major tenants in Southeast Asia's data centre markets, including Johor. How they buy capacity at home says a lot about how they'll buy it abroad: big wholesale blocks, leased, and fast. Operators and landowners in Malaysia should plan for that demand profile, and for the power and water it needs. Tools such as digital twins for low-carbon operations are part of how that load gets managed.
It also shows how much compute China is installing while it builds a domestic chip stack. DeepSeek and Huawei's open-source tools for Ascend processors are the software half of the same push.
Frequently asked questions
How much of China's data centre capacity does ByteDance use?
About one-fifth of more than 24GW, according to SemiAnalysis.
Does ByteDance own its data centres?
Mostly no. It leases nearly all of its capacity from wholesale operators.
How much are China's tech giants spending?
ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu are projected to spend about US$100 billion in 2026, up from over US$50 billion in 2025.
How does China compare with other regions?
Its delivered capacity of more than 24GW is larger than Europe, the Middle East and Africa combined, at roughly 14GW.