Qualcomm strikes AI chip deal with ByteDance for data centers
Qualcomm reached a deal with TikTok owner ByteDance to supply chips for AI data centers, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.
Millions of Qualcomm application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, are expected to flow to ByteDance under the agreement to underpin the Chinese firm’s AI agent software, according to Bloomberg. Landing ByteDance would give Qualcomm one of its earliest high-profile buyers for AI-focused ASICs, a product line central to the chipmaker’s push into data center markets beyond its smartphone roots.
A separate source told Bloomberg that the partnership extends to chip manufacturing services, with Qualcomm helping ByteDance bring a proprietary chip design it has already finished through the production process.
At an earnings call last month, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon outlined a three-part chip roadmap covering custom ASICs, inference accelerators, and central processing units. Without disclosing any names, Amon referenced active customer “engagement” during that call, comments that Bloomberg noted had already sparked a rally in Qualcomm shares.
Qualcomm shares climbed as much as 8.3% to hit a fresh intraday high after the news broke, according to Bloomberg, which said neither company offered comment — Qualcomm’s representatives declined, while ByteDance did not reply to inquiries.
The transaction appears to sit within current U.S. export control boundaries, according to Bloomberg. Fabrication partners such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. would face no regulatory exposure as long as the chips do not exceed permitted computing performance limits under rules that restrict advanced AI chip sales to Chinese buyers.
Qualcomm has long sought a larger role in AI infrastructure but has faced challenges attracting customers in a market dominated by Nvidia. Broadcom and Marvell Technology have emerged as rivals in the custom ASIC space, while companies including Google and Meta have pursued in-house chip designs to reduce dependence on outside suppliers.
On the spending front, ByteDance has been aggressively scaling its AI investments, having increased its infrastructure budget for the technology by a quarter to 200 billion yuan (about $29.4 billion), according to Bloomberg. Doubao, ByteDance’s AI chatbot, topped Chinese app download charts for AI products throughout much of last year, according to Bloomberg.
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Qualcomm strikes AI chip deal with ByteDance for data centers, source
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