According to The Financial Times, the parent company of TikTok is set to spend 40-billion-yuan ($5.5 billion) this year on acquiring AI chips within China, alongside, an additional $6.8 billion for overseas investments aimed at enhancing foundational model training using advanced Nvidia (NVDA.O) chips.
The report also claims, that around 60% of ByteDance’s domestic semiconductor purchases would reportedly be from Chinese suppliers like Huawei and Cambricon Technologies, with the remainder spent on Nvidia chips modified to comply with US export restrictions.
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This comes as Beijing has informally advised its tech firms to source at least 30% of their chips from domestic suppliers, the report added.
Responding to the report, a ByteDance spokesperson, said: “The anonymously sourced information about our plan is incorrect.”
Separately, the move comes as the Chinese technology giant faces mountain pressure from Washington to ban the video-sharing app, which President Trump recently delayed.
On Saturday [18 January 2025], the app became unusable for Americans. “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now,” TikTok’s message read in part.
However, 12 hours later, the app was reinstated with a message appearing on screens stating: “Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the US.”
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