ByteDance Allocates $7 Billion to Rent Nvidia GPUs to Bypass US Sanctions

ByteDance is reportedly planning to invest $7 billion to rent Nvidia GPUs from international cloud providers, as part of its broader $20 billion AI infrastructure budget, according to a report by The Information.

- US sanctions restrict ByteDance from directly purchasing high-performance Nvidia GPUs for use in China.
- The company aims to access Nvidia GPUs through cloud services in the Middle East and Asia.
- ByteDance has denied the report regarding its $7 billion GPU rental plan.
- In 2024, the company invested over $2 billion in more than 200,000 Nvidia H20 GPUs.
- ByteDance is collaborating with Broadcom and TSMC to develop its own AI processors, expected to enter mass production in 2026.

Successfully implementing this strategy could position ByteDance as one of the world's largest consumers of AI hardware.