ByteDance H1 profit falls as revenue surges 30% to $120B

ByteDance, the privately held company behind TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin, posted first-half 2026 revenue of roughly $120 billion, a 30% jump from the same period last year. The problem: net profit actually declined, eaten alive by the company’s aggressive push into artificial intelligence. The AI money pit The profit squeeze traces directly to ByteDance’s ballooning AI expenditures. The company spent approximately $20 billion on capital expenditures in 2025, most of it directed at AI development. Plans for 2026 are even more ambitious, with spending potentially reaching up to $70 billion. The company isn’t funding all of this from cash flow alone. In September 2026, ByteDance closed a $29.6 billion unsecured syndicated loan involving 28 banks. Chinese institutions provided 64% of the total, roughly $18.9 billion, with the rest coming from international lenders. Where the revenue is coming from Overseas revenue crossed the 30% threshold of total company revenue in 2025, up from about 25% in 2024. TikTok Shop, which lets users buy products directly within the app, has been a particularly strong driver of that international growth. Recent secondary market valuations have...