ByteDance Developing Custom CPU Chips for Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Expansion
- tech360.tv
- May 29
- 2 min read
Chinese technology giant ByteDance is developing its own central processing units to support its growing artificial intelligence infrastructure needs. The shift comes as surging chip prices and prolonged supply shortages constrain the expansion plans of the company.
Three people familiar with the matter said the move underscores a rapid industry shift toward inference. This process involves deploying artificial intelligence models to perform agentic tasks that demand more from central processing units.
The central processing units work in tandem with graphics chips made by Nvidia. The shift has created a shortage of central processing units in recent months.
Global hyperscalers including Alphabet unit Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are also developing custom central processing units. This development aims to reduce costs and tailor performance to specific workloads.
The market shift has helped major chip makers Intel and AMD emerge as leading challengers to Nvidia. ByteDance is targeting the deployment of its proprietary chip in its own servers and data centres.
The deployment will support internal operations as the parent of short video platform TikTok prepares a massive rollout of agent-based products. These products include the Coze platform of the company.
The Beijing-based company has approached several external partners to assist with the effort. These partners are expected to contribute to the design work and help secure manufacturing capacity at foundries.
The project remains at an early stage. The sources declined to be named because the plan is not public.
ByteDance is pursuing two chip architecture tracks for development. One track is based on SoftBank-owned Arm, and another is on the open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture.
The company is weighing which design best suits its long-term data centre requirements. Developing two designs simultaneously is a common hedge for technology giants to test options before large-scale manufacturing.
The push comes as Intel has warned Chinese customers of server delivery lead times of up to six months. Intel stated demand from artificial intelligence firms was so strong in the first quarter that it sold chips originally written off.
Advanced Micro Devices Chief Executive Officer Lisa Su warned that the global market is tight. Su noted that demand is outpacing forecasts and supply constraints are expected to persist.
ByteDance currently sources central processing units from Intel and AMD. The manufacturers have raised prices significantly in recent months.
Quarter-over-quarter price increases have ranged from 10% to as much as 35%. These increases prompted the company to accelerate its push for in-house alternatives.
Intel said it updated prices on some products to reflect sustained demand, increased component costs, and evolving market dynamics. Nvidia is also expanding beyond graphics processing units into the market.
Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang hopes its new Vera central processors will give the firm access to a new USD 200 billion market. Nvidia unveiled a new central processor and artificial intelligence system built on technology from Groq.
ByteDance is developing proprietary central processing units to support its artificial intelligence infrastructure and Coze platform.
The company is pursuing two simultaneous design tracks based on Arm and RISC-V architectures.
Rising component costs have led suppliers to implement quarter-over-quarter price increases between 10% and 35%.
Source: REUTERS
