Image source: China Visual

BEIJING, July 19 (TMTPOST) – Tiktok’s owner ByteDance has joined other tech giants in China to design chips for its own use in response to China’s ongoing sci-tech self-reliance initiative, which was launched amid mounting China-U.S. tensions.

The chips will be customized to tackle workloads related to ByteDance’s multiple business areas, including video platforms, information and entertainment apps, ByteDance’s spokesperson said.

ByteDance won’t be manufacturing chips for sale to other companies. Multiple job advertisments have been placed on its website to recruit chip-related experts, specialists and interns. According to the company’s official website, there are currently 31 chip-related openings. The positions are supposed to cover the entire chip design cycle.

The Beijing-headquartered firm’s entry into semiconductor design reflects two prevailing major themes in China, an increasing focus from companies to create chips for specific purposes, as well as the Chinese government’s push to become stronger in this fundamental technology.

Traditional internet giants in China, dubbed BAT - Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, have all developed in-house chipsets.

Baidu has completed a round of financing for its Kunlun AI chip unit, which values the unit at around $2 billion, Reuters reported on Monday. The search engine giant is also considering making the unit a standalone company to commercialize its chip design capabilities.

Alibaba unveiled its first AI inference chipset, called Hanguang 800, in 2019. It released its first core processor IP Xuantie 910, which can be used in 5G networks, AI and autonomous driving earlier that year.

Out of the inspiration of its social media peers that have achieved to make their own chips, ByteDance has started making moves into the AR, VR and nascent metaverse space through a range of investments that include the company's previous purchase of VR headset company PICO in 2021.