FTC Praises Instacart for Ending AI Pricing Tests After $60M Settlement 
Bridgewater Associates Plans Major Employee Ownership Expansion in Milestone Year 
Elon Musk Wins Reinstatement of Historic Tesla Pay Package After Delaware Supreme Court Ruling 
Uber and Baidu Partner to Test Robotaxis in the UK, Marking a New Milestone for Autonomous Ride-Hailing 
SpaceX Begins IPO Preparations as Wall Street Banks Line Up for Advisory Roles 
JPMorgan’s Top Large-Cap Pharma Stocks to Watch in 2026 
AstraZeneca’s LATIFY Phase III Trial of Ceralasertib Misses Primary Endpoint in Lung Cancer Study 
noyb Files GDPR Complaints Against TikTok, Grindr, and AppsFlyer Over Alleged Illegal Data Tracking. 
Italy Fines Apple €98.6 Million Over App Store Dominance 
Republicans Raise National Security Concerns Over Intel’s Testing of China-Linked Chipmaking Tools 
California Regulator Probes Waymo Robotaxi Stalls During San Francisco Power Outage 
Moore Threads Unveils New GPUs, Fuels Optimism Around China’s AI Chip Ambitions 
Nvidia Weighs Expanding H200 AI Chip Production as China Demand Surges 
Seatrium Reaches $475 Million Settlement With Maersk Over Offshore Wind Vessel Project 
Biren Technology Targets Hong Kong IPO to Raise $300 Million Amid China’s AI Chip Push 
Trump Administration Reviews Nvidia H200 Chip Sales to China, Marking Major Shift in U.S. AI Export Policy 
TikTok owner ByteDance is preparing to significantly increase its investment in artificial intelligence in 2026, underscoring the intensifying global race between China’s leading technology companies and their U.S. counterparts. According to a report by the Financial Times, citing people familiar with the matter, the Beijing-based tech giant has drawn up preliminary plans to spend approximately 160 billion yuan, or about $23 billion, in capital expenditure next year, largely focused on AI-related infrastructure.
This planned spending represents a notable rise from the estimated 150 billion yuan ByteDance is investing in AI infrastructure in 2025. Around half of the 2026 budget is expected to be allocated to the acquisition of advanced semiconductors, which are critical for training and deploying large-scale AI models and applications. The report noted that ByteDance has set aside roughly 85 billion yuan specifically for AI processors, highlighting the company’s ambition to strengthen its computing capabilities despite ongoing uncertainty surrounding access to Nvidia chips due to U.S. export controls.
ByteDance has already emerged as one of China’s largest builders of AI infrastructure, leveraging its vast ecosystem that includes TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin. However, its investment levels still lag far behind those of U.S. Big Tech companies, which collectively are expected to pour more than $300 billion into AI and related technologies this year. This disparity illustrates the scale of the challenge Chinese firms face as they attempt to narrow the technological gap with global leaders such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta.
The Financial Times report also indicated that ByteDance could further raise its AI spending if restrictions on purchasing Nvidia’s H200 processors are relaxed. In parallel, the company continues to lease overseas data centers to gain access to cutting-edge hardware needed for training advanced AI models. These moves reflect ByteDance’s determination to remain competitive in artificial intelligence, a sector increasingly seen as central to future growth, innovation, and global technological influence.
