As first reported by Reuters, ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, is planning to train and develop an AI model using chips from fellow Chinese company Huawei. Three anonymous sources approached Reuters with this information;

TikTok's Chinese parent ByteDance plans to develop an AI model trained primarily with chips from compatriot Huawei Technologies, said three people familiar with the matter, as U.S. curbs turn the social media giant homeward in search of chips.

ByteDance is training its new AI model on Huawei's chips, which are inferior to the ones made by Nvidia, amid ongoing U.S. trade restrictions on exports to China.

The shift to Huawei chips for AI model marks ByteDance's strategy to counter challenges posed by US trade curbs.

As the U.S. escalates export controls on China, TikTok’s owner is reportedly planning to use a homegrown chipmaker for an artificial intelligence model it’s developing.

ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, is apparently gearing up to develop a new AI model. The company is looking to use chips from Huawei Technologies for this project, as per a report by Reuters. This strategic shift comes after US restrictions have pushed ByteDance to find local chip suppliers, and speed up its own tech development since 2022.

Why It Matters: ByteDance’s move to use Huawei chips for AI model training comes amid escalating U.S.-China tech tensions. In June, ByteDance reportedly collaborated with U.S. chip designer Broadcom to develop an advanced AI processor, compliant with U.S. export restrictions. This collaboration aimed to secure a stable supply of high-end chips.

Training AI models is far more demanding and requires huge amounts of data, necessitating the use of ultra-high-performance chips such as Nvidia's premium graphics processing units.

AI has become central to the technology industry with firms in sectors as varied as gaming and e-commerce differentiating offerings through the integration of custom AI models - programs that employ pattern recognition to make decisions.

TikTok's Chinese parent ByteDance plans to develop an AI model trained primarily with chips from compatriot Huawei Technologies, said three people familiar with the matter, as U.S. curbs turn the social media giant homeward in search of chips.

The state-owned telecoms operator did not reveal what chips it used for its 1 trillion-parameter model, but it has a partnership with Huawei.