VNET Rides AI Wave with Record Revenue, Plans Massive 2026 Spending

BEIJING – March 16, 2026 – VNET Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: VNET) today announced robust financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2025, exceeding its own guidance on the back of soaring demand for data infrastructure driven by artificial intelligence. The Chinese data center giant reported a 20.5% year-over-year increase in full-year revenues to RMB9.95 billion (US$1.42 billion), signaling its successful capture of the burgeoning AI market. The positive results sent the company's stock up in premarket trading.

"We closed 2025 with strong full-year results, successfully achieving our 2025 delivery plan with a record 404MW delivered and exceeding guidance on both revenues and adjusted EBITDA," said Josh Sheng Chen, Founder and Interim CEO of VNET. "As a leading player, we remain focused on reinforcing our core strengths and developing our scalable and high-performance data centers to capture the accelerating AI-driven demand."

The AI-Fueled Growth Engine

The driving force behind VNET's impressive performance is its wholesale data center business, which caters to large-scale clients like cloud providers and major tech firms. For the full year 2025, revenues from this segment exploded by 77.4% to RMB3.46 billion. The fourth quarter alone saw wholesale revenues jump 47.1% year-over-year, and the company secured a robust 135MW of new wholesale orders.

This surge aligns with broader trends in China's technology landscape. The country's public cloud market is projected to more than double to $90 billion by 2025 from 2021 levels, with AI-related workloads becoming the primary growth engine. The China AI data center market is experiencing unprecedented expansion, with some forecasts predicting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 40% through 2032. VNET appears well-positioned as a key landlord for this digital real estate boom, providing the critical infrastructure needed to power complex AI models and cloud services.

The company's operational metrics underscore this rapid expansion. Total wholesale capacity in service nearly doubled in a year, reaching 889MW by the end of 2025, up from 486MW at the end of 2024. This aggressive build-out is a direct response to what VNET executives call "strong customer demand."

A High-Stakes Bet on 'Hyperscale 2.0'

Fueling this expansion is an ambitious strategy VNET calls its "Hyperscale 2.0 framework." Unveiled in mid-2025, the blueprint outlines a vision to grow the company's data center assets to a staggering 10 gigawatts by 2036. This isn't just about building more data centers; it's a strategic pivot towards specialized, high-density Artificial Intelligence Data Centers (AIDCs) designed to handle the intense power and cooling needs of modern AI hardware.

To achieve this, VNET is banking on massive capital investment. For 2026, the company has forecast capital expenditures in the range of RMB10 billion to RMB12 billion (approximately US$1.4 to US$1.7 billion). This spending is earmarked for an aggressive capacity build-out of 450 to 500 megawatts, a significant step up from the 404 megawatts delivered in 2025.

The move is a high-stakes bet in a fiercely competitive market. Key rivals like GDS Holdings are also expanding aggressively, with its international arm planning to add 300-500 MW annually and securing billions in financing for expansion across Asia. VNET's heavy spending is a clear attempt to solidify its market leadership and create a moat against competitors by scaling up its AI-ready infrastructure.

Peter Zhihua Zhang, Senior Vice President of VNET, noted the momentum, stating, "In the fourth quarter of 2025, we continued to achieve high-quality growth amid strong AI-driven demand." The company's 2026 revenue guidance of RMB11.5 billion to RMB11.8 billion suggests confidence that its massive investment will continue to translate into top-line growth.

Reconciling Revenue with Reality

Despite the impressive revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth, a closer look at the bottom line reveals a more complex financial picture. VNET reported a full-year net loss attributable to the company of RMB251.8 million (US$36.0 million) for 2025. This stands in stark contrast to the net income of RMB183.2 million reported for 2024.

The discrepancy highlights the impact of non-operating and one-time financial events. The 2025 loss was primarily driven by significant income tax expenses of RMB557.5 million and a fair value loss on financial instruments of RMB314.3 million. While these were partially offset by a RMB469.8 million gain from the deconsolidation of a subsidiary, the underlying expenses pushed the company into the red on a GAAP basis.

Conversely, the prior year's profit was inflated by a one-time gain on debt extinguishment of RMB246.2 million. This illustrates the challenge for investors in parsing the company's operational success from the noise of its complex financial structure and non-cash accounting adjustments. While adjusted EBITDA, a measure of operational profitability, grew a healthy 22.6% for the full year, the statutory net loss underscores the financial pressures inherent in a capital-intensive growth phase.

Financing the Future

Executing a multi-billion dollar capital expenditure plan requires a formidable financing strategy, especially for a company with a notable debt load. As of the end of 2025, VNET's total long-term debt stood at RMB16.72 billion (US$2.39 billion). Analysts note the company operates with a significant debt burden, a common feature in the capital-intensive data center industry.

To fund its ambitions, VNET is employing a multi-pronged approach. In 2025, it secured RMB7.62 billion (US$1.09 billion) in new debt and refinancing facilities. The company is also creatively recycling capital through asset monetization. In November 2025, it successfully issued an RMB860 million asset-backed security under a private REIT program, a first for China's IDC industry. More recently, VNET unveiled plans for a $138 million private placement to further expand capacity.

This constant need for financing underscores the risks of its strategy. The company must successfully manage its high debt levels and continue to access capital markets while simultaneously executing one of the most aggressive data center build-outs in the region. VNET's ability to balance this financial tightrope while delivering on its operational promises will be the critical test as it seeks to become the undisputed backbone of China's AI-powered future.