Despite ongoing U.S. export restrictions, ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is continuing to invest heavily in NVIDIA’s cutting-edge AI chips. According to The Information, ByteDance has announced plans to spend up to $7 billion securing NVIDIA chips outside of China by 2025.
ByteDance has been using NVIDIA’s Hopper AI chips in data centers outside of China, exploiting U.S. regulatory loopholes. Sources close to ByteDance’s plans revealed that Zhang Yiming, the Company’s co-founder, is negotiating with data center operators in Southeast Asia and other regions to use NVIDIA’s upcoming next-generation GPU, Blackwell.
In addition, The Information reported that ByteDance and Tencent are estimated to have ordered about 230,000 NVIDIA chips this year, including the 2024 H20 model. The H20 is a modified version of the Hopper chip designed to comply with U.S. semiconductor export control standards for China.
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