Shares of Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) climbed 1.86% to trade at $139.85 during the pre-market trading session on Thursday amid a report that Tencent Holdings Ltd. (OTC:TCEHY) has signed a major lease agreement with the company.
The Chinese tech giant has agreed to a five-year lease across multiple Oracle data centers in Southeast Asia, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.
The deal will give Tencent access to approximately 100,000 advanced AI chips unavailable in China and is valued at about $7 billion, with roughly 30% payable upfront, according to the report.
These chips will be used to further enhance Tencent’s AI models and develop agentic tools, sources told the publication.
Tencent and Oracle did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comments.
Chinese Firms Seek Overseas AI Compute
Chinese tech companies are turning to overseas computing capacity amid limited domestic supply and tighter U.S. export controls. In December 2025, Tencent had reportedly gained access to Nvidia Corp.’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) advanced Blackwell AI chips by renting computing capacity at a Datasection-operated data center near Osaka, Japan.
The arrangement allowed Tencent to use the Nvidia B200 processors through a third-party cloud structure despite U.S. restrictions on chip sales to China.
Last week, a report indicated that China has considered allowing companies such as ByteDance and Alibaba Group Holdings (NYSE:BABA) to buy Nvidia’s high-end RTX PRO 5500 chips.
Tencent Ramps Up AI Infrastructure Spending
Tencent has ramped up infrastructure spending to strengthen its AI capabilities and is integrating AI agents across its ecosystem, particularly in WeChat, which has more than 1.4 billion users, according to FT. The company has developed a suite of AI agents for productivity and enterprise use, led by its flagship WorkBuddy office agent, which has rapidly gained users and leads China’s PC-based office agent market.
The company’s second capital expenditure surged 176% year-over-year to RMB 53 billion ($7.9 billion), driven by AI infrastructure investments and prepayments for computing resources.
Price Action: On a year-to-date basis, Oracle declined 29.56%, as per Benzinga Pro.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Image via Shutterstock
Login to comment