ByteDance, the Chinese tech giant that owns video-sharing apps TikTok and Douyin, is reportedly planning to develop a new AI large language model using chips from Huawei Technologies.

Three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that the tech giant plans to use Huawei's Ascend 910B chip to train the new model. A fourth person told Reuters that the TikTok owner is in process of developing a new AI model, but was unable to confirm whether it will use Huawei chips.

One of the people added that in terms of computational parameters the new model’s capabilities will be less sophisticated and powerful than ByteDance’s current AI model Doubao.

As of 2022, the US Department of Commerce has introduced extensive export controls requiring licences for companies who export chips to China if they employ US tools or software, regardless of where the chips are manufactured, including those used for supercomputing and artificial intelligence.

In March, the US banned its companies from selling specific advanced chips and chip-making tools to Chinese companies.

The move was aimed at hindering China's progress in the areas of supercomputing and artificial intelligence, which are considered essential for military advances. These actions are part of a broader strategy to restrain China's technological and military capabilities for national security reasons.

For this reason, ByteDance differentiated itself towards domestic suppliers of chips used in artificial intelligence and accelerated the development of its own, as restrictions were an obstacle to the export of advanced Ai chips such as those from Nvidia.

According to the three people and a separate source, ByteDance has already started using the Huawei chips, with uses including less computationally intensive inference duties, such as pre-trained AI models making predictions.

Michael Hughes, a TikTok spokesman in Washington D.C., commented on behalf of ByteDance: "The entire premise here is wrong. No new model is being developed.”

US-sanctioned Huawei Technologies has been testing its new chip with potential clients in China as companies look for Nvidia’s alternatives.

The manufacturer has offered samples of its Ascend 910C processor to large Chinese server companies for hardware testing and configuration, according to two sources briefed by the matter, said Yahoo Finance on Sunday.

Some of the firms are also major Nvidia customers, according to one of the sources, a distributor of Huawei AI chips.

---