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.

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 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.

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.

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.

ByteDance (BDNCE) is reportedly planning to develop an artificial intelligence model, which will be trained mainly with chips from Huawei Technologies. The TikTok owner is now expected to use Huawei's Ascend 910B chip to train a large-language AI model,