As reported by Reuters, in response to US export restrictions on high-performance AI chips, ByteDance has pivoted towards domestic suppliers like Huawei Technologies to fuel its artificial intelligence ambitions.
The company plans to use Huawei’s Ascend 910B chip to train a new large-language model, sources familiar with the matter revealed. This shift comes as ByteDance continues to accelerate its AI efforts in the face of limited access to premium chips from US market leader Nvidia.
While ByteDance already utilizes the Ascend 910B for less computationally demanding tasks, such as inference—where pre-trained models make predictions—training new AI models requires significantly more computational power. Nvidia’s top-tier GPUs, like the H20 model adapted for China, are still the gold standard for training, but US export controls have forced ByteDance to seek alternative solutions.
Although ByteDance has reportedly ordered more than 100,000 Ascend 910B chips this year, supply chain constraints have delayed the arrival of the full order, with fewer than 30,000 chips delivered by mid-2024. This shortage could hinder the company’s timeline for rolling out the new AI model. Nevertheless, ByteDance remains one of the largest buyers of both Huawei’s AI chips and Nvidia’s China-specific hardware.
ByteDance’s AI advancements have been pivotal to its flagship products, including Doubao, a large-language model and chatbot launched in 2023, which now has over 10 million monthly active users in China. As the company expands its AI-based offerings, including text-to-video tools and video-focused models, the role of domestic chip suppliers like Huawei is set to grow.
Despite ByteDance’s ambitious plans, company spokesperson Michael Hughes denied that a new model is in development. Huawei has yet to comment on the situation. With global trade tensions and chip shortages continuing, the race for AI dominance in China is far from over.