ByteDance (BYTDC), the owner of social media company TikTok, has been barred by Chinese regulators from deploying billions of dollars worth of Nvidia(NVDA) chips in new data centers.
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The ban was reported by The Information citing two company employees.
Power for Billions of Users
According to the report, ByteDance bought more Nvidia chips than any other Chinese firm in 2025 as it raced to secure computing power for its billion-plus users amid concerns that President Trump could curb supply.
Washington has barred sales of Nvidia’s most advanced chips to China, allowing only scaled-down versions such as the H20. Nvidia had introduced a China-specific chip, the RTX6000D, but demand has been tepid, with some major tech firms opting not to place orders.
U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier this month following talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping that Washington will “let them deal with Nvidia but not in terms of the most advanced” chips.
The reported ban underscores China’s President Xi’s efforts to reduce reliance on U.S. technology and develop domestic supplies to become self-sufficient.
In August, Chinese regulators asked local firms to halt new orders of Nvidia AI chips and have since pushed companies to adopt homegrown processors. China has also issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically-made AI chips.
China Going Solo on AI
“The regulatory landscape does not allow us to offer a competitive data center GPU in China, leaving that massive market to our rapidly growing foreign competitors,” an Nvidia spokesperson told Reuters.
At the beginning of 2025, ByteDance said it was planning a significant investment in Nvidia chips, with a projected expenditure of $7 billion in 2025. ByteDance has previously navigated export constraints by storing the chips in data centers outside China, such as in Southeast Asia, effectively adhering to the letter of U.S. regulations without directly importing the chips into China.
ByteDance’s strategic acquisition of Nvidia chips is crucial for its AI-driven initiatives, including Doubao, a leading AI chatbot in China with 51 million active users.
A Chinese ban could have a big impact on its AI and tech ambitions in the months and years ahead.
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