The owner of TikTok is working with a US tech firm to design its own AI processor as the social media giant seeks to secure is own supply of chips amid heightened US-China relations, according to a report by Reuters.
The partnership with California-based Broadcom involves developing a five nanometre chip, designed to be compliant with US export restrictions in what is believed to be the first semiconductor partnership between an American and a Chinese company since the US introduced export controls for certain kinds of high-end chips in 2022.
ByteDance, which launched TikTok internationally in 2017, has joined other social media giants in ramping up its AI capabilities but has faced challenges securing a reliable enough supply of AI chips to power complex algorithms. According to Reuters, the firm had been stockpiling Nvidia chips up until now to support its AI advances.
It comes as the owner of TikTok rival Facebook has discussed an AI partnership with Apple in signs its capabilities are in hot demand.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Meta has been exploring a tie-up with Apple that would see its AI tools being incorporated into the latest generation of iPhones, following the California-based firm’s launch of its new AI strategy that would integrate ChatGPT-style technology into its suite of apps and voice command tool Siri.
Apple has lost its crown as the world’s most valuable company in recent months, falling behind computing rival Microsoft and chipmaker Nvidia after some shareholders judged its AI capabilities to be behind some of its peers.
Meta, which has launched its own open source large language model, has seen its stock price rise more than 40% since the start of the year.
