Oracle scraps US$7 billion deal to lease chips to Tencent under Trump pressure, FT reports
US officials have approached the firm to raise concerns about the deal, the newspaper says
Published Wed, Nov 4, 2026 · 02:47 PM
[BENGALURU] Oracle has cancelled a multibillion-dollar chip leasing contract with Tencent after bowing to pressure from the Trump administration, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday (Nov 4).
US officials approached Oracle to raise concerns about the Tencent deal, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Tencent also received visits from top officials in Guangdong, where the group is based, who asked the company to support domestic Chinese chips, the report said.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Oracle, Tencent and the White House did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on the report.
The Financial Times reported in October that Tencent signed its largest overseas lease deal, worth an estimated US$7 billion, with Oracle
The deal would have given Tencent access to about 100,000 advanced artificial intelligence chips that were not available in China due to curbs from Washington and Beijing, according to the report.
Tencent had agreed to a five-year lease across multiple Oracle data centres in South-east Asia, according to the report.
This comes as Chinese AI developers are renting access to AI 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. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG
