According to people familiar with the matter, ByteDance is developing an artificial intelligence chip and is negotiating with Samsung Electronics to produce the chip to ensure the supply of advanced processors. ByteDance aims to receive chip samples by the end of March, sources said. The company plans to produce at least 100,000 chips this year designed specifically for artificial intelligence inference tasks. ByteDance seeks to gradually increase production to 350,000 units, one of the sources said.
Negotiations with Samsung include securing supplies of memory chips that are in unusually short supply amid the global rush to build AI infrastructure, making the deal particularly attractive, one of the sources said.
A company spokesperson said in a statement that information about ByteDance’s internal chip projects was inaccurate, without elaborating. Samsung declined to comment.
The chip project, codenamed SeedChip, is part of ByteDance's broader effort to direct resources into artificial intelligence development, from chips to large language models, betting that the technology will transform its business portfolio that spans short videos, e-commerce and enterprise cloud services.
The company founded Seed in 2023 to develop AI models and promote their applications.
ByteDance plans to spend more than 160 billion yuan ($22 billion) this year on AI-related purchases and improve its in-house chips, one of the sources said.