TikTok owner ByteDance to train its AI model using 100,000+ of Huawei's new Ascend AI chips

TikTok parent company ByteDance will be training its next-generation AI model using Huawei AI chips, according to three people familiar with the matter, reports Reuters.

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The outlet said that ByteDance is diversifying its domestic suppliers of chips used for AI and accelerated development of its own since the United States started restricting exports on advanced AI chips -- you know, the world's best are made by NVIDIA and export controls have stopped all high-end NVIDIA chips from entering China. So, ByteDance is side-stepping that, and keeping it all within China by tapping Huawei AI chips.

ByteDance will be tapping Huawei's new Ascend 910B AI chips to train its new large language model (LLM) according to Reuters' sources, who of course, declined to be identified as the plan is confidential (except leaking it to one of the largest news sources on the planet seems to be OK, even for Chinese companies).

The TikTok parent company is already using Huawei Ascend 910B AI chips primarily for less computationally intensive inference tasks, which involve pre-trained AI models that make predictions, according to three sources that spoke with Reuters. Another source said that ByteDance will be using a new AI model, but this source wasn't clear on whether it would be using Huawei chips.

The training of AI models is far, far more demanding and requires insane amounts of data, which means companies are forced into using ultra-high-performance chips like the ones NVIDIA makes, except they're not allowed to touch the shores of China. This is why ByteDance is working closely with its Chinese counterpart, to get homegrown AI chips into its AI servers.

ByteDance has ordered over 100,000 of Huawei's Ascend 910B chips this year, but as of July, the company has received just 30,000 of them -- "a pace too slow to meet company needs" a source told Reuters. The constrained supply and limited computing power versus NVIDIA's chips that it supplies to China, has stopped ByteDance from setting a timeline for its new AI model, sources told Reuters.