Wedoany.com Report on Feb 12th, ByteDance is advancing an in-house developed artificial intelligence chip project and has initiated negotiations with Samsung Electronics regarding manufacturing, aiming to establish a stable supply chain guarantee for advanced processors. This development once again highlights the company's intention for deep strategic positioning in AI hardware. 
The sources stated that ByteDance plans to obtain chip test samples by the end of March, with a target to produce at least 100,000 chips dedicated to AI inference tasks within this year. Production may potentially be increased to 350,000 units depending on circumstances. The negotiations with Samsung cover not only logic chip foundry services but also procurement arrangements for memory chips. Against the backdrop of a widespread global shortage of AI infrastructure, this supply chain integration attempt appears particularly crucial.
In response to media inquiries, a ByteDance spokesperson stated that some information regarding the internal chip project was inaccurate but did not elaborate on specific details. Samsung Electronics declined to comment on the related negotiations.
In fact, ByteDance's investments in the chip sector have been evident. Since 2022, the company has been recruiting professionals in areas such as chip architecture and design verification, attempting to gradually build self-controlled computing infrastructure capabilities. Previous reports also indicated that ByteDance is collaborating with Broadcom to develop advanced AI processors and may entrust the manufacturing phase to TSMC.
Similar to global tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, ByteDance's move is also seen as a strategic choice to reduce reliance on Nvidia. Nvidia currently dominates the AI chip market, but its high-end products are subject to strict export control restrictions, making it increasingly difficult for Chinese tech companies to access advanced computing power.
In the Chinese market, Alibaba and Baidu have already made progress in the AI chip field. Alibaba launched its Zhenwu series chips in recent years, while Baidu plans to spin off its chip business for an independent listing. ByteDance has not yet released a finished chip product, but its internal project codenamed "SeedChip" has become a crucial piece of its overall AI strategy.
The advancement of this project is highly synergistic with the Seed department established by the company in 2023, which focuses on the research and development of large language models and related applications. ByteDance plans to drive the intelligent upgrade of core businesses such as short videos, e-commerce, and enterprise cloud services through full-stack technological investment from chips to models.
Sources further revealed that ByteDance plans to invest over 160 billion yuan (approximately $22 billion) in AI-related procurement this year, with more than half of the budget allocated for purchasing Nvidia chips and supporting the R&D of internal chip projects. Zhao Qi, the executive in charge of the Doubao chatbot and its overseas version Dola, stated in an all-hands meeting: "The company's artificial intelligence investments will benefit all business units."
Zhao Qi also acknowledged that ByteDance currently still lags behind the global leading level in terms of AI model capabilities. However, he emphasized that the company will continue to increase resource investment in 2026, committed to narrowing this gap. This statement demonstrates ByteDance's strategic patience and long-term determination during the technological catch-up phase.
