Chinese technology company ByteDance, which owns TikTok and Douyin, plans to spend around 100 billion yuan ($14 billion) on purchasing artificial intelligence chips from NVIDIA in 2026.
This was reported by the Chinese publication South China Morning Post (SCMP), citing its own sources.
According to the media, this is a significant increase compared to 2025. At that time, the cost was estimated at approximately 85 billion yuan.
However, the implementation of these plans depends on whether the US will allow NVIDIA to supply its H200 graphics processors to China. The budget may be revised depending on regulatory decisions.
The planned expenditure is part of ByteDance’s large-scale capital investment program in artificial intelligence in 2026.
The company, valued at around $500 billion, is also expanding its own capabilities: its internal chip development division already employs around 1,000 people.
According to SCMP sources, ByteDance has already made progress in creating its own processor, which is similar in performance to the NVIDIA H20 — a version of the chip for the Chinese market, but with a lower cost. In this way, the company is trying to reduce its dependence on imports from the US and control infrastructure costs.
Meanwhile, NVIDIA is trying to meet the high demand for its H200 artificial intelligence chips from Chinese technology companies, according to Reuters sources. To do this, the American company has turned to contract manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing to increase production.
Currently, Chinese technology companies have ordered 2 million H200 chips from NVIDIA for 2026, while the Americans themselves currently have only 700,000 units in stock.
The exact additional volume that NVIDIA intends to order from TSMC remains unclear. However, it is known that the US company has offered China’s TSMC to start production of additional chips from the second quarter of 2026.
At the same time, China is requiring its own chip manufacturers to use 50% of their own equipment to add new capacity.
Beijing has not officially confirmed this. However, Chinese manufacturers who want to obtain permits to build or expand their factories must first prove that at least half of their equipment will be of Chinese origin.
Supply of NVIDIA chips to China
The US imposed restrictions on the supply of modern chips to China back in 2022 to curb the modernization of the Chinese armed forces. Similar rules were also in place for Russia.
The White House and Congress also proposed requiring manufacturers to integrate geolocation verification technology directly into chips.
In July 2025, NVIDIA received permission from the US government to export its key H20 artificial intelligence graphics processor to China. This could bring the company up to $5 billion in additional revenue in 2025.
The company had previously been forced to halt sales due to a ban by the US government — Washington introduced new licensing requirements for devices and believed that the chips could be used for military purposes.
Before the US lifted restrictions on H20 exports, demand in China grew for repairs to NVIDIA’s high-tech artificial intelligence chips.
Reuters reported that dozens of workshops appeared in the Chinese city of Shenzhen at that time, specializing exclusively in repairing these devices — some of them repairing up to 500 chips per month.
In early December 2025, the US announced that it would allow NVIDIA to export its high-performance H200 processors to China. However, the US government will impose a 25% tax on such shipments.
US President Donald Trump said he had informed Chinese leader Xi Jinping of this decision, and that Xi had reacted positively. He also added that a similar approach would be applied to AMD and Intel.
However, even with US export approval, Xi Jinping is calling on “the entire nation” to create a completely self-sufficient Chinese semiconductor supply chain that would involve thousands of engineers and scientists in companies and research centers across the country.
Earlier, Reuters journalists reported that Chinese scientists were working on a prototype technology that would enable the country to produce advanced chips. Washington apparently tried to prevent this process.
Read more: NVIDIA invests in Intel and buys $5 billion worth of shares
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