"China's ByteDance Developing In‑House AI Chip, In Talks with Samsung Electronics on Production"

On the 11th, Reuters reported, citing multiple sources, that China’s ByteDance, which operates the short‑form video platform TikTok, is developing an artificial intelligence (AI) chip and is in talks with Samsung Electronics about manufacturing it.

According to the sources, ByteDance is aiming to receive sample chips by the end of next month. ByteDance plans to produce at least 100,000 units of this chip, which will be used for AI inference workloads, within this year, and intends to gradually increase production to a maximum of 350,000 units.

ByteDance logo. Reuters, Yonhap News

One source said that, amid a global boom in AI infrastructure build‑outs that has led to a shortage in memory semiconductor supply, ways to secure memory chips are also included in the current negotiations.

Reuters explained that this chip development will mark a milestone for ByteDance. The project, code‑named “SeedChip,” is part of ByteDance’s strategy to concentrate resources on AI development, ranging from semiconductors to large language models (LLMs).

Big Tech companies such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are racing to develop their own AI chips to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. For Chinese technology companies, in particular, the need to develop in‑house chips has become even more urgent due to U.S. export control policies that restrict sales of advanced chips to China.

According to the sources, ByteDance plans to spend more than 160 billion yuan (approximately 33.6464 trillion won) this year on AI‑related procurement, with more than half of that amount to be allocated to purchasing Nvidia chips such as the H200 and to developing its own chips.

ByteDance said in a statement that information about its in‑house chip project was inaccurate. Samsung Electronics declined to comment.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.