China's TikTok Parent Acquires Nvidia Chips in Malaya to Bypass US Sanctions
Chinese parent company of TikTok's Bytedance has secured access to approximately 500 NVIDIA Blackwell chips, totaling around $36 million in computing power and valued at roughly RM9.81 billion ($274M), by deploying them outside China through a partnership with Southeast Asian firm Aolani Cloud based on the island of Penang Island (formerly Pulau Pinang) to bypass US export restrictions that prohibit these high-performance processors from entering Chinese territory directly, according to reports filed Thursday March 13.
Key Points
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1Chinese parent company of TikTok, Bytedance, has secured access to approximately 36,000 Nvidia Blackwell AI chips without importing them into China.
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2To bypass export restrictions on high-performance computing hardware in its home country, the firm is assembling these systems outside Chinese borders using a loophole involving Southeast Asian jurisdictions like Malaysia and Singapore.
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3Bytedance has partnered with Aolani Cloud to deploy roughly 500 Nvidia Blackwell AI compute units specifically within facilities located abroad.
Developments
Perspectives
Bytedance has obtained a loophole to bypass export restrictions on high-performance computing hardware in its home country by assembling systems abroad.
— ManilatimesThe firm is working with Aolani Cloud, which operates facilities located within Malaysia and Singaporean company based