Overview
- Reuters and other outlets reported Monday that ByteDance is in non-public talks to buy AI inference chips from Shanghai-based Iluvatar CoreX and is also considering Baidu’s Kunlunxin chips.
- Sources said Iluvatar is expected to ship at least 50,000 chips to ByteDance this year, with most used for inference tasks such as serving the Doubao chatbot.
- The discussions are preliminary, the details are not final and the reports rely on unnamed sources who warned terms could still change.
- A deal would make Iluvatar ByteDance’s third domestic GPU supplier after Huawei and Cambricon and follow Iluvatar’s January Hong Kong listing and analysts’ forecasts of sharp 2026 shipment growth.
- The talks reflect a broader shift driven by U.S. export controls that have limited Nvidia access in China and have helped Chinese AI chipmakers capture more of the domestic accelerator market, potentially speeding supply diversification and greater local control over AI services.