ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has big plans for buying Nvidia chips by 2025 – despite restrictions in the United States. The Information reported
that ByteDance intends to spend $7 billion in 2025 on the chips, citing sources. ByteDance will be one of the top Nvidia chip owners in the world if it follows through with its plans, despite U.S. efforts that restrict Chinese companies’ ability to buy U.S. AI-chips like these.
The U.S. announced in 2022 that certain types of AI chips would be restricted from being exported to countries such as China, where ByteDance has its headquarters. Since then, these restrictions have been tightened multiple times.
ByteDance adheres to these restrictions technically by using a loophole. The company doesn’t bring the chips directly into China, but instead stores them in data centres located in other areas like Southeast Asia. This technically does not violate U.S. regulations. According to the South China Morning Post, ByteDance operates Doubao, China’s “hottest” AI bot with 51 million users.
ByteDance claims that it has adhered to all U.S. export restrictions. It sent TechCrunch this statement: “ByteDance does not have any H100s in its data centers outside the U.S. Since the relevant US Export Control Rules took effect.”
The article was updated on December 31st, 2024 with a comment by ByteDance. Subscribe to the latest tech news with our newsletter
