TikTok’s parent company could shun Nvidia and AMD as reports claim it will use 100,000 Huawei AI chips to train its next-generation LLM
After US trade restrictions prevented Nvidia from exporting its advanced AI chips to China, the company responded by developing the H20 GPU, a modified version that complies with regulations by offering lower levels of performance while still meeting the AI processing requirements of Chinese companies .
While there is a thriving black market for Nvidia’s high-end GPUs, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, which is already under intense scrutiny in the US, cannot afford the legal and reputational risks of participating in such illegal markets. processors for its AI needs. ByteDance is reportedly the largest buyer of H20s in China, having spent more than $2 billion on hardware in 2024 alone.
While it is expected to continue using Nvidia GPUs, Reuters claims that ByteDance is now shifting its attention to domestic chip suppliers such as Huawei to realize its AI ambitions.
Not without challenges
The report claims that ByteDance has purchased more than 100,000 Ascend 910B chips to date, making it one of the largest buyers of Huawei’s AI hardware in China, although it had received less than a third of the order as of July.
Training AI models is a compute-intensive process, which is why high-end GPUs like those from Nvidia are in such high demand. The move to Huawei’s Ascend chips could be a strategic move for the TikTok owner, but it won’t be without its challenges.
ByteDance’s existing AI models, such as Doubao and Jimeng, are built using more powerful hardware and are used in applications ranging from chatbots to text-to-video tools. The company’s ultimate goal is to reduce dependence on Nvidia, but the move to Huawei’s Ascend chips could hinder the company’s ability to train more complex models, Reuters says.
ByteDance’s strategy appears to be to sidestep US trade restrictions while finding local suppliers to maintain its competitive advantage in AI and beyond. The company recently invested in Xinyuan Semiconductors, a Chinese memory chip manufacturer, which could lead to developments such as a potential VR headset that could compete with Meta’s Quest and Apple’s Vision Pro.