Chinese company ByteDance is working with US chip designer Broadcom to develop advanced artificial intelligence processors, Reuters reports. The move will help TikTok's owner ensure adequate supplies of advanced chips amid tensions between China and the United States.
The new 5nm chips comply with US export restrictions and the two companies use Taiwan's TSMC to produce integrated chips for ASIC applications.
Since Washington imposed export controls on advanced semiconductors in 2022, Chinese and American companies have not publicly announced their cooperation in developing chips with advanced technologies of 5 nanometers and larger.
Agreements between the United States and China in this area generally include less advanced technologies. ByteDance's cooperation with Broadcom will help reduce procurement costs and ensure a stable supply of advanced chips.
According to Reuters, TSMC does not plan to start production of the new chip this year. Design work is underway, but the manufacturing phase has not yet begun.
ByteDance has entered the generative AI space, although the supply of AI chips is limited.
High-end Nvidia chips are inaccessible due to US export controls aimed at hindering the Chinese military's breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and supercomputing.
ByteDance and Broadcom have been working together since at least 2022, with Broadcom saying in public statements that the Chinese company has also purchased high-performance Tomahawk chips from American companies in addition to Bailey chips used in artificial intelligence computing clusters.
Ensuring the security of its AI chips is crucial to ByteDance's ability to improve its algorithms.
In addition to TikTok and the Chinese version of short-video app Douyin, ByteDance operates a number of popular apps, including a ChatGPT-like chatbot called Doubao, which has 26 million users.
To support its AI efforts, ByteDance carries NVIDIA chipsets, including the A100, H100, A800, and H800 chipsets.
ByteDance committed $2 billion to buy Nvidia chips last year and also bought the Ascend 910B chip from Huawei last year.
ByteDance currently has hundreds of open jobs in the semiconductor field, including 15 ASIC chip designer positions, and is also attracting employees from other Chinese AI chip companies.