Reuters: “ByteDance” developing artificial intelligence chip and in talks with Samsung about production

The Chinese company “ByteDance”, which owns TikTok, is developing its own artificial intelligence chip and is in talks with Samsung Electronics about producing it.

This was reported to Reuters by sources familiar with the negotiations.

According to them, “ByteDance” plans to receive test samples of the chips by the end of March. This year, the company wants to produce at least 100 000 chips for AI inference (the work of already trained models). In the future, production may gradually increase to 350 000 units.

The talks with Samsung also concern access to memory chips, which are currently in short supply due to the global expansion of AI infrastructure, making the deal particularly attractive, one of the sources said.

At the same time, a “ByteDance” spokesperson said that the information about the companyʼs own chip is inaccurate, but did not provide details. Samsung declined to comment on the situation.

The development would be a major milestone for “ByteDance”, which has long been trying to create its own chips to power its AI systems. The company began actively recruiting chip development specialists back in 2022.

In June 2024, Reuters reported that “ByteDance” was collaborating with American chip developer “Broadcom” on an advanced AI processor, with production planned to be transferred to the Taiwanese company TSMC.

The chip project, codenamed “SeedChip”, is part of “ByteDance” broader strategy to develop artificial intelligence — from processors to large-scale language models. The company is betting that AI will transform its businesses, including short-form video, e-commerce and cloud services.

• Global tech giants Google, Amazon and Microsoft are already building their own AI chips to reduce their dependence on Nvidia, the main supplier of advanced AI processors. For Chinese companies, the US export restrictions on the sale of advanced chips to China have provided an additional incentive.
• While “ByteDance” hasn’t unveiled its own chip, its rivals Alibaba and Baidu have already made strides. Last month, Alibaba unveiled its Zhenwu chip for large AI systems. Baidu sells its chips to third-party customers and plans to take its Kunlunxin chip unit public in the near future.

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