ByteDance Ltd, the parent company of TikTok, is developing an artificial intelligence chip and holding talks with Samsung Electronics Co Ltd to manufacture it, according to sources familiar with the matter who spoke to Reuters on Tuesday.
The Chinese technology giant aims to receive sample chips by the end of March 2026 and plans to produce at least 100,000 units of the chip, designed for AI inference tasks, this year. One source indicated ByteDance is looking to progressively ramp production to up to 350,000 units. The chip project, codenamed SeedChip, is part of ByteDance’s broader push to channel resources into AI development, from chips to large language models, betting the technology will transform its business portfolio spanning short video, e-commerce and enterprise cloud services.
Negotiations with Samsung include access to memory chip supplies that are in exceptionally short supply amid the global AI infrastructure build out, making the deal particularly attractive. ByteDance said information about its in house chip project was inaccurate in a statement, without elaborating. Samsung declined to comment.
The work would mark a milestone for ByteDance, which has long sought to develop chips to support its AI workloads. The company’s chip efforts date back to at least 2022, when it began hiring chip related staff in earnest. Reuters reported in June 2024 that ByteDance was working with United States chip designer Broadcom Inc on an advanced AI processor, with manufacturing planned to be outsourced to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC).
Samsung Electronics is one of the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturers and would be a significant partner for ByteDance. Samsung’s advanced production technologies and experience in both logic chips and memory, including high bandwidth memory (HBM), make it a strong collaborator for a company entering the chip space. If agreed, this collaboration would signal ByteDance’s ambition to build more of its AI infrastructure in house rather than relying solely on external suppliers like Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA).
ByteDance plans to spend over 160 billion yuan, approximately 22 billion United States dollars, on AI related procurement this year, with more than half allocated to purchasing Nvidia chips, including H200 models, and advancing its in house chip development. The company founded Seed in 2023 to develop AI models and promotes their applications.
Global technology giants including Alphabet Inc’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Google, Amazon.com Inc, and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) have developed their own AI chips to reduce reliance on Nvidia, the dominant supplier of advanced chips essential for AI development. For Chinese technology companies, United States export controls on advanced chip sales to China have also added urgency to develop their own AI chips.
While ByteDance has yet to launch its own chip, its rivals Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Baidu Inc are ahead in AI chip development. Alibaba last month unveiled its Zhenwu chip for large scale AI workloads. Baidu sells chips to external clients and plans to list its chip unit Kunlunxin soon.
The move comes amid tight supply conditions in the AI chip market shaped by several factors. Global demand for advanced AI processors is surging and supplies are constrained, especially of memory and specialized inference accelerators. United States export controls on advanced chip sales to China have increased urgency for Chinese technology firms to build or secure alternative sources of compute. Competitors within China have already launched or commercialized their own AI chips, intensifying pressure on ByteDance.
For ByteDance, developing its own AI chip could reduce heavy dependence on external suppliers, especially Nvidia, and give the company more control over costs and performance. It could also improve efficiency for AI workloads across its applications, including TikTok, Douyin, and enterprise services, potentially improving profitability and responsiveness.
For Samsung, a partnership could bring a major new AI chip customer, boosting utilization of its foundry capabilities at a time when demand for advanced semiconductors is strong. It would further entrench Samsung’s role in the global AI semiconductor supply chain beyond memory products alone.
The approval comes weeks after ByteDance signed binding agreements with Oracle Corp, Silver Lake Partners, and MGX for a majority stake in TikTok’s American operations, with the deal closed on January 22, 2026. The consortium including Oracle, Silver Lake and Emirati firm MGX collectively holds 50% of the US business, while ByteDance retains 19.9% and existing ByteDance investors hold 30.1%.
