TikTok Parent Treads On Alibaba's Path To Reduce Dependence On Foreign Tech

TikTok owner ByteDance looks to hire dozens of new semiconductor jobs, insinuating its in-house chip design unit, the SCMP reports.
ByteDance borrowed a leaf from Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA and Tencent Holding Ltd's TCEHY initiatives to reduce China's reliance on foreign tech.
Both companies, along with ByteDance, have large cloud computing operations.
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"Big cloud companies are investing in chips to save costs by using Arm-based chips," said a senior analyst. "Instead of going with general-purpose chips from Intel Corp INTC, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc AMD, and Nvidia Corp NVDA, these cloud vendors are trying to build purpose-built AI accelerators to save costs and get better performance per watt."
ByteDance confirmed hiring semiconductor talent. However, building a chip team remains in a preliminary stage.
ByteDance considered designing application-specific chips for its use to support the higher computing needs of its services. It did not look to manufacture chips.
ByteDance's job board on its website currently shows 31 related listings, spanning positions that cover the entire chip design cycle.
However, China's dependence on the U.S. for foreign technology remains high, as China failed to commercialize chips using the most advanced node processes smaller than 10nm.
The U.S. expects a preliminary vote this week on a slimmed-down China competition bill that focuses on $52 billion in support for semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.
Photo by Olivier-Bergeron via Unsplash