On June 24, it was reported that ByteDance cooperated with Broadcom to develop advanced AI processors in order to cut procurement costs and ensure stable supply of high-end AI chips. In response to the news, ByteDance replied to the First Financial reporter that the news was untrue.
According to media reports, the processor developed jointly by ByteDance and Broadcom is 5nm ASIC (application specific integrated circuit). ASIC is a special chip for specific application scenarios. It maximizes performance and energy efficiency through algorithm solidification, with strong average performance, low power consumption, and high cost performance. However, it has a large initial investment and a long research and development time, and does not have versatility. It is expected that the processor will comply with the new US export control regulations, and the manufacturing work will be outsourced to TSMC.
Sources say that although the chip design work is currently progressing smoothly, it has not yet entered the "chip casting" (trial production) stage, and it is expected that TSMC will not produce this chip this year. As of the time of publication, TSMC has not yet issued a response. Previously, ByteDance has purchased Broadcom's Tomahawk 5nm chip and Bailly switch for AI computer cluster.
ByteDance has continued to invest in the chip field in recent years. Tan Dai, president of ByteDance's volcanic engine, said in an interview with the media earlier that computing power is a heterogeneous computing power system in the current industry situation. Each team has different chip choices and different chips have different areas of expertise. Some have large memory, some have strong computing power, and some have good compatibility. For the platform side, scale advantage always exists, and regardless of whether there will be more bottom tier suppliers in the future, enterprises will think of cooperating with top platforms.