ByteDance appears to be avoiding US restrictions to buy Nvidia chips: report

ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, has big plans to buy Nvidia chips in 2025 – despite US restrictions.

ByteDance plans to spend $7 billion on chips in 2025According to what was reported by Al-Information newspaper, citing internal sources. If ByteDance follows through, it will become one of the largest owners of Nvidia chips in the world, despite US efforts to restrict Chinese companies from buying US AI chips like these.

In 2022, the U.S Export restrictions On certain types of AI chips to countries, including China, where ByteDance is headquartered. I’ve got these restrictions Tighter several times since then.

ByteDance technically adheres to these restrictions using a loophole: The company does not bring the chips directly to China, but instead stores them in data centers located in other regions such as Southeast Asia, The Information reports. This does not technically violate US restrictions.

ByteDance operates Doubao, China’s most popular chatbot with 51 million active users, according to South China Morning Post.

TechCrunch has reached out to ByteDance for more information.