ByteDance to spend $7 billion on Nvidia GPUs despite export controls
According to reporting from The Information, ByteDance, the Chinese company behind TikTok, plans to take advantage of loopholes in American export controls to spend $7 billion on Nvidia Hopper GPUs in 2025.
That pile of money won’t be used to actually purchase the in-demand GPUs, as US export controls forbid Nvidia from selling the chips to companies in China and Russia.
Rather, ByteDance plans on spending the money to rent access to US-based cloud-computing resources powered by the chips, which doesn’t violate any laws, according to the report.
Demand for the popular and expensive Nvidia chips, such as the H100, has led to the hardware being smuggled into China via shell companies and mediators.
Rather, ByteDance plans on spending the money to rent access to US-based cloud-computing resources powered by the chips, which doesn’t violate any laws, according to the report.
Demand for the popular and expensive Nvidia chips, such as the H100, has led to the hardware being smuggled into China via shell companies and mediators.
