On January 21, ByteDance announced a major focus on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, intending to invest over $12 billion in AI by 2025, as reported by the Financial Times. This decision comes amidst pressure from Washington for ByteDance to divest its popular app, TikTok, in the United States.
In response to the Financial Times report, a ByteDance spokesperson stated, "The anonymously sourced information about our plan is incorrect."
ByteDance is planning to allocate 40 billion yuan ($5.50 billion) for acquiring AI chips from Chinese vendors in 2025. Additionally, the company intends to invest around $6.8 billion internationally to enhance its model training capabilities using advanced Nvidia chips. Nvidia declined to comment on the matter.
The report mentioned that approximately 60% of ByteDance's semiconductor orders within China will be sourced from domestic suppliers like Huawei and Cambricon. The remainder will be procured from Nvidia, with adaptations to comply with U.S. export regulations.
According to the report, Chinese tech firms have been advised by Beijing to obtain at least 30% of their chip supplies from domestic sources.
Reuters' requests for comments from TikTok, Huawei, and Cambricon were not immediately answered.
On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump issued a directive to postpone the TikTok ban, originally scheduled for January 19.
(Conversion rate: $1 = 7.2712 Chinese yuan)