ByteDance’s First-Half Profit Drops to $20 Billion, Weighed Down by AI Spending

ByteDance’s net profit in the first half of this year declined by a single-digit percentage to $20 billion, as the Chinese tech giant ramped up its investments in AI, according to three people with knowledge of the financial results.

The company’s revenue for the period rose around 30% year on year to $120 billion, driven partly by robust growth of its international advertising and e-commerce revenue from TikTok, the people said. That suggests ByteDance’s growth rate is accelerating marginally from its rate of expansion in the past two years. ByteDance’s revenue grew 29% last year to about $200 billion, the people said, following a similar rate of growth in 2024. The company’s net profit grew 27% to $42 billion last year.