BEIJING: China's ByteDance is teaming up with U.S. chip designer Broadcom to develop advanced AI processors, according to two sources familiar with the matter, a move that will help the TikTok owner ensure ample supplies of high-performance chips amid ongoing U.S.-China tensions.
The 5-nanometer chips are customized products known as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that will comply with U.S. export controls and manufacturing will be outsourced to Taiwan's TSMC, the sources said.
Since the United States introduced export controls on cutting-edge semiconductors in 2022, no cooperation between Chinese and U.S. companies on chip development involving advanced technologies above 5nm has been publicly announced.
U.S.-China deals in this area generally involve less sophisticated technologies.
A collaboration with Broadcom, ByteDance's existing business partner, will help cut procurement costs and ensure a stable supply of high-performance chips, said the people, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of China's semiconductor issue.
But TSMC does not plan to start manufacturing the new chips this year, they said.
One of the people said design work is progressing well but that “tape-out,” which marks the end of the design phase and the start of manufacturing, has not yet begun.
ByteDance and Broadcom did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
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TSMC declined to comment.Like many global technology companies, ByteDance is making a big push into generative artificial intelligence, but it and its Chinese peers must contend with a much more limited supply of AI chips than their international peers.
U.S. export controls aimed at thwarting the Chinese military's advances in AI and supercomputing mean that Nvidia's cutting-edge chipsets are out of reach.
Competition is fierce between U.S.-made chips developed specifically for the Chinese market and chips made by rival Huawei, one of China's few makers of AI accelerators.
ByteDance and Broadcom have been business partners since at least 2022.
In an official statement, Broadcom announced that the Chinese company has purchased the US company's 5nm high-performance switch chip “Tomahawk” and “Bailey” switches for AI computer clusters.
For ByteDance, ensuring the security of its AI chips is crucial to strengthening its algorithms.
ByteDance operates a variety of popular apps, including TikTok and the Chinese version of the short-video app Douyin, as well as Doubao, a ChatGPT-like chatbot service with 26 million users.
ByteDance is stockpiling Nvidia chips to support its AI efforts, according to a second person briefed on the matter.
This includes the A100 and H100 chips, which were available before the first round of U.S. sanctions were imposed, as well as the A800 and H800 chips that Nvidia made for the Chinese market but later restricted, the people said, adding that ByteDance allocated $2 billion to buy Nvidia chips last year.
ByteDance also bought Huawei's Ascend 910B chips last year, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
ByteDance currently has hundreds of semiconductor-related job listings, including 15 positions for ASIC chip designers, according to a review of its website.
The company is poaching top talent from other Chinese AI chip companies, according to one source with direct knowledge of the matter.
