The article includes a translated disclaimer about translation quality and authoritativeness alongside stock-related activity.

Even with more domestic suppliers, the most demanding training workloads may still rely on imported accelerators, underscoring ongoing localization challenges.

Investors reacted to potential deal with Iluvatar CoreX, with shares rising as much as about 12% before retreating later in the day.

Hong Kong-listed Iluvatar CoreX saw intraday gains of up to 12% following the report, signaling market optimism in the prospective partnership.

Industry watchers are cautious but attentive, pondering how expanded domestic chip production could affect global supply chains, costs, and interoperability.

AI chips are strategically central to modern infrastructure, influencing innovation, cost dynamics, and national competitiveness.

ByteDance is negotiating with Iluvatar CoreX, a Shanghai-based GPU startup, to procure AI inference chips as part of diversifying domestic chip supply.

Chinese AI chip makers now capture roughly 40% of China’s AI accelerator server market, eroding Nvidia’s dominance in the region.

Iluvatar CoreX, which has Hong Kong-listed status after a January listing, is known for the Zhikai and TianGai series GPUs and reported about 1 billion yuan in revenue in 2025, mainly from GPU sales.

The deal context suggests ByteDance is seeking to bolster its AI hardware capabilities, reflecting a broader commitment to leading AI technology.

Key risks for Iluvatar include delivery reliability, software compatibility, and customer concentration as it scales shipments toward tens of thousands.

The move signals a significant expansion or reinforcement of ByteDance’s AI hardware capacity, indicating strategic infrastructure investments.