ByteDance Might Be Planning to Use Huawei Chips in Its AI Model

• Amidst growing trade restrictions from the US, ByteDance might be switching to Huawei chips for its upcoming AI model.
• The decision is yet to be made but the chip in question is already being used in other models and tasks.
• Whether it's ready to power a high-performance AI model remains a question.

ByteDance might be switching to Huawei chips for its new AI model, amidst imposing trade restrictions on the sale of AI chips from the US.

This decision comes after Beijing recently requested Chinese companies to purchase their AI equipment from local manufacturers to counter trade restrictions imposed by the US.

The chip in question is Huawei's Ascend 910B. It is currently used to power the company's latest large language model, Doubao, which was launched last year in August, and two video-focused Doubao models which were launched this September to compete with OpenAI.

Plus, these chips are also being used in less demanding tasks like those involving pre-trained AI models or running applications like the text-to-video tool Jimeng.

About the Project

There's a lot of ambiguity regarding whether such a project is happening or not. Some inside sources said a new AI model is being built and the Huawei chips will be used for it.

• Others confirmed the project but said they are yet to decide whether these Huawei chips will be used owing to its limited computing abilities.
• Apart from performance, another major issue is the short supply of AI chips. ByteDance has ordered more than 100,000 Ascend 910B chips this year but as of July 2024, it has received less than 30,000.

So on one hand, they have Nvidia's China available chips and on the other hand, they have Huawei chips which are neither as powerful nor available in adequate supply. The dilemma of choosing the right chip is causing the project to be delayed.

However, Michael Hughes, a TikTok spokesman in Washington D.C denied all the rumors and said The entire premise here is wrong. No new model is being developed.

Recently, Chinese AI company, Baidu also made a shift from Nvidia chips to Huawei's 910B Ascend AI chips and made an order worth $61.83 million.

A Little Background of the AI Chip War Between the US and China

Every other tech company these days is working on AI models and building quality AI models requires high-performance GPUs like the ones developed by Nvidia.

However, in 2022, the US began imposing trade restrictions, limiting the sale of advanced AI equipment, such as high-performance chips to China. It's worried that if China gets its hands on such advanced technologies, it might use them against them.

What the US fails to recognize is that China is not too behind in the technology race. Cutting it off from foreign chip manufacturers has only encouraged it to invest more in its local manufacturing companies. As a result, the AI chip market in China has begun to flourish.

As per Kai-Fu Lee, former Google China president, AI-powered applications in China can surpass the US in the next few months and Chinese companies are only six to nine months behind.

However, taking the state of Huawei chips into consideration, it is safe to say that while it's great that China is trying to boost its local companies to avoid the burns of trade restrictions, it's too soon to say whether Chinese manufacturers are ready to replace AI chip giants like Nvidia.

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