ByteDance secured a $29.6 billion loan from close to three dozen banks, Reuters reported Friday, citing three people familiar with the transaction, with institutions from China, the United States, Europe, and Singapore all taking part.
The three-year facility, coordinated by Citigroup and JPMorgan, is the second-largest loan made in Asia this year, trailing only a $40 billion raise by SoftBank in March, according to Reuters. Chinese banks account for more than 60% of the total amount, one of the sources said.
While ByteDance characterized the borrowing to lenders as general corporate financing, the outlet reported that the money is in practice earmarked for the company's artificial intelligence ambitions. Proceeds are intended for initiatives beyond China's borders, with one source noting that ByteDance holds offtaker agreements on a large number of data centers currently being developed across Southeast Asia.
The deal is notable for its structure. Rather than securing the facility against assets or equity, ByteDance offered no collateral whatsoever — an arrangement lenders viewed as a testament to the company's creditworthiness. "It is very rare to see such a mega loan unsecured," one of the sources told the outlet. "The banks practically are counting purely on ByteDance's name."
ByteDance pushed the loan above its original $20 billion goal once lender appetite proved far stronger than anticipated. The loan carries an initial three-year term with options to extend for two additional years.
ByteDance had been in discussions with banks for an offshore loan that would be the largest in the company's history. At that stage, no decision on the use of funds had been made and terms remained subject to change.
ByteDance's previous foray into international lending came in 2024, when a syndicate of more than 20 banks extended $10.8 billion to the company. Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan led that deal, with a portion of the proceeds going toward retiring an earlier loan the company had taken out in 2021.
The TikTok and Douyin owner has been ramping up investment in artificial intelligence. Among the signals of that push, the outlet reported in June that the company was in discussions with Shanghai-based Iluvatar CoreX over AI chip procurement for inference workloads, with a comparable arrangement with Baidu also on the table.
