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Tag: Billion

  • Tencent Reportedly Signs $7 Billion Oracle Deal for 100,000 AI Chips

    Tencent Reportedly Signs $7 Billion Oracle Deal for 100,000 AI Chips

    Chinese technology giant Tencent has reportedly signed its largest overseas cloud lease agreement with US provider Oracle, securing access to around 100,000 advanced artificial-intelligence chips housed in Southeast Asian data centers, the Financial Times reported.

    The five-year agreement is worth roughly $7 billion, with an upfront payment of about 30 percent, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the matter. The arrangement would give Tencent access to high-performance computing hardware that is difficult to obtain directly in China amid US export restrictions on advanced chips.

    Under current US export regulations, offshore cloud leasing arrangements remain permitted, allowing Chinese firms to tap advanced processors — including Nvidia chips barred from direct export to mainland China — through data centers abroad. The report said neither Tencent nor Oracle had publicly confirmed the deal, and Reuters said it could not independently verify the figures, which should be treated as reported terms rather than confirmed facts.

    The reported lease underscores how Chinese technology majors continue to anchor their AI ambitions to overseas computing infrastructure even as they invest heavily in domestic alternatives. Tencent reported a 176 percent year-on-year jump in second-quarter capital expenditure to 53 billion yuan (about $7.5 billion), driven largely by advance payments for AI computing resources and data center infrastructure, according to industry coverage.

    Analysts say the deal highlights the intensifying global race for AI computing capacity, with leading firms locking in long-term access to scarce high-end chips. ByteDance and Alibaba are also reported to be among the largest clients of data centers in Southeast Asia.

    The deal also illustrates the deepening entanglement of US and Chinese technology ecosystems despite escalating trade controls. While Washington has tightened restrictions on chip exports to China, cloud leasing through third-country data centers remains a permitted channel — one that policymakers in both capitals are now scrutinising closely.

    For Oracle, the agreement represents one of the largest cloud contracts in Asia, strengthening its position in the region’s fast-growing data center market. For Tencent, secure long-term access to advanced computing is central to its ambitions in large AI models and agent-based tools, including features for its WeChat super-app, which serves more than 1.4 billion users.

    The arrangement comes as governments on both sides of the Pacific weigh tighter controls on advanced semiconductors, raising questions about how long such offshore leasing channels will remain available.

  • CSL Strikes Up to $1.6 Billion Deal with Alentis to Co-Develop Rare Disease Drug

    CSL Strikes Up to $1.6 Billion Deal with Alentis to Co-Develop Rare Disease Drug

    CSL, the Australian biotechnology giant, said it had entered into an agreement with Switzerland-based Alentis Therapeutics to co-develop and co-promote a treatment for rare kidney and liver diseases, in a deal worth up to $1.6 billion before development funding.

    Under the terms of the partnership, CSL will make an upfront payment of $355 million, while Alentis will be eligible for up to $1.2 billion in commercial milestone payments, the companies said.

    A potential first-in-class treatment

    The agreement gives CSL the right to jointly develop and commercialise lixudebart, previously known as ALE.F02, a potential first-in-class therapy being studied for rare kidney and liver diseases.

    Lixudebart is currently in a Phase 2 trial for a rare autoimmune kidney disease that can cause irreversible kidney damage and end-stage renal disease. In 2024, the US Food and Drug Administration granted the drug orphan drug designation — a special status for investigational therapies intended to prevent, diagnose or treat rare diseases or conditions — for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic lung disease.

    The two companies also plan to advance the treatment as a potential therapy for focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, known as FSGS, a chronic kidney disease, and for primary sclerosing cholangitis, or PSC, a chronic liver disease for which there is currently no approved treatment.

    Shared profits after launch

    Once the drug is commercialised, global profits will be shared 55 per cent to CSL and 45 per cent to Alentis, the companies said.

    The milestone payments, worth up to $1.2 billion, are tied to commercial achievements rather than development steps, meaning they would be paid as the drug reaches defined sales or commercial targets following any approval. The upfront payment of $355 million secures CSL’s position in the co-development and co-promotion arrangement.

    Rare-disease therapies target small patient populations, but such medicines often address conditions with few or no existing treatment options. The agreement comes as lixudebart moves through mid-stage clinical testing, a point at which biotech partnerships are commonly structured around shared development costs and shared commercial rights.

    For Alentis, the deal pairs its research programme with CSL’s global development and commercial scale, while giving the Australian company access to a potential first-in-class asset in a therapeutic area where new options remain urgently needed.