Chinese ByteDance, which owns the popular social network TikTok, is exploring the possibility of independently developing processors for its own needs. This decision is due to the fact that the company cannot find suppliers whose products would meet its requirements for chips.
We assume that ByteDance chips will perform tasks related to various business interests of the company; from working with video platforms to using information and entertainment applications. The ByteDance semiconductor project is part of two popular trends; the growing desire of technology companies to create chips for their own needs and China’s intention to develop new competencies in the field of basic technologies related to computing.
In order to achieve semiconductor self-sufficiency, China is exploring self-designed chips in ByteDance
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At the same time, the company does not intend to produce chips for sale to others; its developments are exclusively for internal use. Other Chinese tech giants are also showing increased interest in semiconductor technology. It is known that in recent years, the search giant Baidu, which implements projects in the field of e-commerce and cloud technologies Alibaba, has been engaged in the production of semiconductors of its own design; while both do not have much experience in creating such solutions.
Custom chips allow you to create specialized systems that best suit the special requirements of a particular company; and in this they compare favorably with off-the-shelf third-party products. ByteDance has already begun recruiting employees for its own development. The company’s website contains descriptions of numerous vacancies related to the development of microchips.
Nevertheless, Chinese companies still need contract semiconductor manufacturers, often foreign ones. The main difficulty is that the technological war actually declared by the United States to China primarily concerns the production of chips; the equipment for the production of which China has mainly Western production; and the termination of its supply is not ruled out. China has been heavily investing in the local semiconductor industry for years; but the country is still heavily dependent on Western and other foreign technology.
