Chinese company ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, plans to spend $7 billion on NVIDIA AI chips in 2025, reports The Information, citing insiders. This comes despite the U.S. ban on selling technology to China.
If ByteDance follows through with this plan, it will become one of the largest holders of NVIDIA chips in the world. ByteDance owns Doubao, China's most popular AI-powered chatbot, with 51 million active users.
In 2022, the U.S. imposed restrictions on the export of certain AI chips to China and several other countries, which have since been further tightened.
ByteDance formally adheres to these restrictions. The company does not directly import chips into China but stores them in data centers located in other regions, such as Southeast Asia. Technically, this does not violate American sanctions.