BYTEDANCE REVENUE SURGES 30% TO $120B, BUT AI SPENDING HITS PROFITS ByteDance generated roughly $120 billion in revenue during the first half of 2026, up about 30% YoY, while net profit declined by a single-digit percentage to $20 billion as AI investment weighed on earnings. The TikTok parent is now generating revenue at roughly the same scale as Meta, which reported $117 billion during the same period. TikTok and ByteDance’s other overseas businesses accounted for more than 30% of total revenue, supported by growth in international advertising and e-commerce. The overseas share was about 25% two years ago. At the same time, ByteDance is spending aggressively to compete in AI. The company is developing its own large language, video and inference models, expanding its AI cloud business, building an inference chip and pushing products including Doubao, Seedance and Doubao Work. ByteDance recently borrowed around $30 billion from banks, its largest-ever loan, as its AI infrastructure requirements continue to grow. Despite comparable first-half revenue, ByteDance’s estimated secondary-market valuation of $630 billion remains well below Meta’s roughly $1.7 trillion market capitalization. Source: The Information