Recently, ByteDance has made an official foray into the realm of proprietary chip development. Its chip research and development (R&D) team has now grown to encompass over a thousand members, with AI chip researchers constituting more than half of this talented workforce. ByteDance has successfully established a comprehensive product line that caters to four key scenarios: AI chips, server Central Processing Units (CPUs), Video Processing Units (VPUs), and Data Processing Units (DPUs).

The company's AI inference chip, internally codenamed SeedChip, is on track to achieve its first tape-out milestone by the end of March 2026. ByteDance has set an ambitious target of mass-producing at least 100,000 units of this chip within the year, with plans to gradually ramp up production to 350,000 units. Samsung Electronics is anticipated to serve as the primary foundry partner for this endeavor.

In addition to its in-house chip development efforts, ByteDance has also been actively procuring external chips. The company has amassed a stockpile of nearly 120,000 NVIDIA accelerator cards and close to a million other series chips. Simultaneously, ByteDance is incorporating domestic chips from manufacturers such as Cambricon and Ascend, thereby fostering a diversified supply system. Looking ahead to 2026, ByteDance has outlined a strategic investment plan of 160 billion yuan in the AI sector, with a dedicated allocation of 85 billion yuan specifically for AI processor procurement and R&D activities.