ByteDance Defies Restrictions to Buy Over 200,000 NVIDIA AI Chips—Here’s What It Means

ByteDance, owned by TikTok, is now China’s largest buyer of NVIDIA AI chips.

On Monday, Business Insider, citing a report from The Financial Times (FT), reported that ByteDance strives to establish its position in the generative AI competition.

According to the report, ByteDance can only purchase lower-specification chips like NVIDIA’s H20, specifically designed to comply with U.S. export controls, for its data centers in China. However, the company can procure advanced chips, such as Blackwell and H100, for its overseas data centers.

FT noted that despite restrictions imposed by U.S. export controls and China’s regulations, ByteDance has become NVIDIA’s largest AI chip buyer. Earlier, The Information reported that ByteDance had ordered over 200,000 NVIDIA H20 chips this year.

In a strategic move, ByteDance is establishing a new data center in Malaysia to boost its computing capacity and secure access to NVIDIA’s H100 and Blackwell chips. Simultaneously, the company is exploring in-house chip development to challenge NVIDIA’s market dominance.

However, industry analysts highlight significant challenges for ByteDance, including slowing TikTok user growth and the looming threat of a U.S. ban on its services.