ByteDance, the parent of TikTok, is in talks to purchase at least 50,000 AI chips from Shanghai-based Chinese chipmaker Iluvatar CoreX, primarily for inference workloads, while also considering chips from Baidu's unit Kunlunxin.
June 15, 2026 · ByteDance
ByteDance Eyes 50,000 Domestic AI Chips From Iluvatar CoreX
As US export controls tighten on Nvidia's high-end chips, ByteDance is in talks to buy at least 50,000 inference GPUs in 2026 — a move that would make Shanghai startup Iluvatar CoreX its third domestic supplier, after Huawei and Cambricon.
50,000+
Chips ByteDance could procure in 2026, mostly for inference
3rd
Domestic GPU supplier, after Huawei & Cambricon
7nm
First mass-produced GPGPU on this process in China
Iluvatar CoreX track record vs. a single ByteDance order
Chips, to scale — one potential order rivals everything shipped to date
52,000+
Shipped to date
50,000+
Potential single
Iluvatar CoreX
Independent Shanghai GPU firm
Tiangai (training) / Zhikai (inference)
TG Gen 1 in A100/MI100 class
~1B yuan (~$148M) 2025 revenue
HK Exchange listing, Jan 2026
Kunlunxin (also considered)
Baidu subsidiary
Kunlun II (XPU architecture)
A100-equivalent (~128 TFLOPS FP16)
Clusters of ~30,000 chips running
Already counts Tencent as a customer
The optimistic read
Commercial rollout of domestic GPUs cuts reliance on Nvidia. Iluvatar CoreX claims in-house tests beat the Hopper generation, with 20% higher performance on DeepSeek V3.
The caution
Independent third-party benchmarks are largely unpublished. Pricing, availability and the deal itself remain undisclosed — the outcome of negotiations is unconfirmed.
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