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On June 24th, rumors have surfaced recently that the China's internet giant ByteDance is collaborating with the American chip manufacturer Broadcom to develop an advanced AI chip in order to reduce procurement costs and ensure stable supply of AI chips. In response to this rumor, ByteDance has officially stated that the news is not true.

According to sources, ByteDance and Broadcom are working on a specific application integrated circuit (ASIC) for AI acceleration workload, which will be manufactured by TSMC using 5nm technology. Furthermore, the chip is said to comply with the US restrictions on China.

A related source disclosed that although the two companies have started the design work, they have not yet finalized the design phase (tape out, indicating the end of the design phase and preparation for manufacturing).

For ByteDance, AI is currently a key focus area, as popular apps like Toutiao and Douyin rely heavily on AI algorithms. This includes services like the AI chatbot "Doubao." In order to advance in AI, ByteDance procured a significant amount of NVIDIA A100, H100, A800, and H800 chips before and after the US restrictions in October 2022. Reports indicate that ByteDance spent $2 billion on NVIDIA chips in 2023. Additionally, ByteDance is said to have purchased Broadcom's Tomahawk 5nm chips and Bailly switches for its AI computing clusters.

However, ByteDance has officially denied the rumors of collaborating with Broadcom to develop AI chips.

In fact, ByteDance started its self-developed chip layout several years ago. As early as April 2018, Vice President Yang Zhenyuan mentioned that ByteDance has the largest number of user-uploaded videos globally that require analysis, understanding, and processing. The platform's recommendation engine also needs strong machine learning capabilities, leading to a significant amount of chip procurement and application. ByteDance is actively seeking breakthroughs in the chip-related field.

In March 2021, ByteDance posted 12 chip-related job positions on its official website, hinting at their work on self-developed cloud AI and Arm server chips. In response, a ByteDance spokesperson mentioned, "We are forming relevant teams to explore in the field of AI chips". Vice President Yang Zhenyuan confirmed during the "2022 Volcano Engine Power Conference" in July 2022 that ByteDance is developing custom chips for its video recommendation business, focusing on hardware optimization to boost performance and cut costs.

Alongside self-developed chips, ByteDance has also invested in several chip manufacturers in recent years, including Stream Computing, Moore Threads, Runic Technology, RIVAI Technologies, Shanghai Yunsilicon Technology, SSC Venture VIII Holdco Q, Ltd., Silicon Integrated, InnoStar Semiconductor.

Editor：Lulu

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