- ByteDance has posted a dozen semiconductor-related job advertisements on its official website, based mainly in Beijing and Shanghai
- The report said that the plan is still at an early stage and the company’s focus is on Arm-based server-side chips
As per a report by Reuters, ByteDance is making plans to develop semiconductors, according to the company’s job postings and a source familiar with the situation. The report said that the plan is still at an early stage and the company’s focus is on Arm-based server-side chips, the person told Reuters.
The report added that ByteDance has posted a dozen semiconductor-related job advertisements on its official website, based mainly in Beijing and Shanghai. It has established a team to explore the development of artificial intelligence chips, ByteDance told Chinese business magazine Caijing.
Stepping up efforts to design their own chips
ByteDance did not offer immediate comment when contacted by Reuters.Chinese technology biggies are stepping up efforts to design their own chips in a sign of China’s ambitions to reduce its dependence on foreign producers such as Qualcomm Inc and Nvidia Corp.
China is the world’s largest purchaser of semiconductors but its ability to produce chips domestically lags behind the United States, Japan and South Korea added the report . As per ICInsights, of the $143 billion in chips sold in China in 2020, only $22.7 billion worth were produced in China, and only $8.3 billion was produced by Chinese-headquartered companies.
Baidu has completed a round of financing for its Kunlun AI chip unit, which values the unit at around $2 billion.Alibaba Group, unveiled an AI chip for its cloud computing products in late 2019. said the report.