ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming becomes Asia’s richest person

ByteDance has signed a $29.6 billion syndicated loan with 28 banks, securing Asia's second-largest dollar-denominated borrowing of 2026 as the TikTok parent company accelerates its push into artificial intelligence infrastructure outside China.

The three-year facility, which can be extended to five years, was upsized from an original target of $20 billion after lender demand exceeded $30 billion in orders, according to Bloomberg. Reuters reported that Citigroup ↘ 0.70% and JPMorgan ↗ 0.10% coordinated the deal, with Chinese, U.S., European, and Singaporean banks participating. Lenders include ICBC Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited, Bank of China, HSBC ↘ 0.98%, and China Construction Bank, with Chinese institutions covering 64% of the total.startupfortune+1

A Tighter Spread Signals Confidence

The loan opens at 68 basis points over the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, tighter than the roughly 85 basis points ByteDance paid on its $10.8 billion offshore facility in 2024. The only larger dollar loan in Asia this year is SoftBank Group's $40 billion bridge loan signed in March to back its OpenAI-linked investments.reuters+2

ByteDance is weighing plans to spend as much as $70 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026, more than double the previous year, with that figure potentially reaching $100 billion in 2027 for data centers and AI development. Proceeds from the loan are earmarked for general corporate purposes, though the company has directed much of its recent spending toward AI capabilities including the Doubao chatbot and Seedance video-generation tool.aiweekly+2

Zhang Yiming's Rising Fortune

The AI buildout has reshaped ByteDance's valuation and its founder's personal wealth. Zhang Yiming has overtaken Gautam Adani to become Asia's richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His net worth has surged by more than $12 billion in September alone, driven by updated valuations from investment firms including BlackRock ↗ 1.50%, Fidelity Investments, and T. Rowe Price T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. ↗ 1.28%. Zhang's fortune has grown more than eightfold from $13 billion in March 2019.bloomberg+1

The loan arrives as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to a range of 3.75%-4.00%, a move that increases borrowing costs across the AI sector. ByteDance locked in its financing at a moment when the cost of capital is rising for every company betting that the AI infrastructure boom will justify the debt taken on to build it.startupfortune