China's ByteDance gets access to top Nvidia AI chips, WSJ reports
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ByteDance is working with Aolani Cloud to deploy about 500 Nvidia Blackwell computing systems in Malaysia, the WSJ report said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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Bengaluru - TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance is assembling computing power with top Nvidia chips outside China, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on March 12.
ByteDance is working with South-east Asian firm Aolani Cloud to deploy about 500 Nvidia Blackwell computing systems in Malaysia, totalling roughly 36,000 B200 chips, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
The hardware build-out would likely cost more than US$2.5 billion (S$3.2 billion), the WSJ report said, adding that Aolani currently operates with about US$100 million worth of hardware.
ByteDance plans to use the computing power for artificial intelligence research and development outside China and to meet growing global demand for AI from its customers, according to the report.
An Aolani spokesperson said the company adheres fully to all applicable export control regulations and aims to provide cloud computing services to multiple companies across Asia and globally. Nvidia and ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In February, Reuters reported that the US will allow ByteDance to buy Nvidia’s H200 chips, but the chipmaker has not agreed to proposed conditions for their use, said a person familiar with the matter. REUTERS
