Oracle scraps US$7 billion deal to lease chips to Tencent, FT Says - The Straits Times

US officials told Oracle of their concerns about the Tencent deal.

Oracle has cancelled a US$7 billion (S$8.9 billion) dollar chip leasing deal with Tencent Holdings, the Financial Times reported.

The newspaper reported in October that Oracle had signed a five-year agreement to lease 100,000 chips to Tencent in the Chinese firm’s largest ever overseas deal.

US officials told Oracle of their concerns about the Tencent deal, the FT said, citing two sources familiar with the matter.

Tencent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Chinese AI developers are renting access to artificial intelligence accelerators that are not available in their home country, such as those from American firm Nvidia, to avert US export controls.

Chinese tech companies are among the biggest customers of data centres in South-east Asia. BLOOMBERG