Like other Chinese entities, TikTok owner ByteDance cannot buy the highest-performance Nvidia GPUs and install them into its data centers in China. However, the company has found that it can still use Nvidia GPUs that are physically located in cloud data centers in other countries. Next year, the company aims to expand its usage of such GPUs and spend as much as $7 billion on access to Nvidia GPUs, reports The Information, citing its own sources. ByteDance has denied the report.
The report says ByteDance plans to invest over $20 billion in AI infrastructure, including $7 billion in accessing advanced Nvidia GPUs in the cloud, data centers, and even submarine cables. The U.S. prohibits ByteDance from purchasing Nvidia GPUs and using American cloud services. However, it cannot block ByteDance’s access to cloud services elsewhere, for example, in the Middle East or Asian countries. As a result, ByteDance can access American processors while technically adhering to U.S. sanctions against China’s AI and HPC sectors.
