ByteDance is ramping up its efforts in developing in-house chips, with its chip research and development (R&D) team now boasting over 1,000 members. This includes more than 500 professionals dedicated to AI chip development and approximately 200 in the CPU team. From an organizational standpoint, the leaders of the AI chip, DPU, and CPU teams all report directly to Vice President Yang Zhenyuan.

Since initiating its chip business in 2020, ByteDance has successfully established four major product lines: AI chips, server CPUs, VPUs, and DPUs. Among these, the AI inference chip, codenamed SeedChip, is expected to complete its first batch of samples by the end of March 2026. The company aims to manufacture at least 100,000 units in volume within the year, with potential production scaling up to 350,000 units. Samsung is poised to become its foundry partner for this venture.

By the end of 2025, ByteDance will have accumulated a substantial inventory of NVIDIA accelerator cards and chips, while also integrating domestically produced chips into its operations. Furthermore, ByteDance plans to allocate 160 billion yuan to the AI sector in 2026, with 85 billion yuan earmarked for the procurement and R&D of AI processors.