# Tencent Reportedly Leases ~100,000 Advanced AI Chips from Oracle in Southeast Asia for ~$7B

Times of AI Desk · 2026-09-30 · Policy

[https://timesof.ai/2026/09/tencent-oracle-7b-chip-lease](https://timesof.ai/2026/09/tencent-oracle-7b-chip-lease)

> The Financial Times reported on Sept. 30 that Tencent agreed earlier this year to a five-year lease across several Oracle data centres in Southeast Asia for about 100,000 advanced AI chips not available in China, worth about $7 billion with roughly 30% paid upfront. Reuters could not verify the report; neither company commented. Tom’s Hardware (Oct. 5) estimates about $1.60 per chip-hour — its own math, chips unnamed — and frames the arrangement as the remote-access gap in current U.S. export controls.

A **single Financial Times report**, still unconfirmed, puts a **$7 billion** price on the export-control question that matters most for Chinese hyperscalers: not shipping chips into China, but **renting them abroad**.

According to the **FT (Sept. 30)**, as relayed by **Reuters** via **The Straits Times** (Oct. 1), **Tencent** agreed earlier in 2026 to a **five-year lease** across several **Oracle** data centres in **Southeast Asia** for about **100,000 advanced AI chips** not available in China. The deal is estimated at about **$7 billion**, with roughly **30% paid upfront**. **Reuters could not immediately verify** the report. **Oracle and Tencent did not comment.** Every figure below is **reportedly**.

## What Tom’s Hardware adds (Oct. 5)

**Tom’s Hardware** works the reported dollars into about **$1.60 per chip-hour** over five years — roughly **43% below** SemiAnalysis’s ~**$2.80** one-year **H100** GPU-hour rate — and says the paper price **better fits Hopper-class hardware at volume**. **Neither company has named the chips.** That per-hour comparison and the Hopper inference are **Tom’s estimates**, not confirmed contract terms. Details on countries, sites and start date remain undisclosed.

Renting offshore compute is **legal under current BIS rules**, which have covered shipments of advanced AI chips since November 2023 but left cloud rentals as a gap. The House-passed **Remote Access Security Act** (**369–22** in January) would give Washington authority to regulate remote cloud access to sensitive technology; it sits in the Senate Banking Committee. **The Information** has reported that Commerce is drafting a rule aimed at Chinese firms renting compute in third countries — a reported draft, not an enacted rule. No published Commerce rule text was inspected here.

## Why it is still news

If the FT account holds, a Chinese hyperscaler is buying frontier-class training capacity by leasing it from a U.S. cloud outside China — the live export-control loophole ahead of further U.S.–China talks and Oracle’s investor day. It remains a **single-source FT report**, syndicated and analyzed, **not confirmed**.

## Limits

- Headline claim is **reportedly**; FT original not inspected here (paywall); Straits Times / Tom’s both derive from it.
- Chip type **unnamed**; **$1.60/chip-hour** and Hopper inference are **Tom’s Hardware** estimates.
- Neither company commented; Reuters could not verify.
- Commerce “draft rule” is **The Information** reporting, not a published regulation.

## Sources

- [Reuters via The Straits Times: China’s Tencent leases 100,000 chips from US tech firm Oracle to accelerate AI push: Report (October 1, 2026)](https://www.straitstimes.com/business/chinas-tencent-leases-100000-chips-from-us-tech-firm-oracle-to-accelerate-ai-push-report)
- [Tom’s Hardware: Tencent scores 100,000 offshore AI chip deal with Oracle for $7 billion despite climbing prices (October 5, 2026)](https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/tencent-scores-100-000-offshore-ai-chip-deal-with-oracle-for-usd7-billion-despite-climbing-prices-per-hour-costs-estimated-to-be-43-percent-under-standard-h100-rental-rates)