Chinese regulators have banned ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, from deploying Nvidia chips in new data centers, The Information reported on Wednesday, citing two company officials.
ByteDance bought more chips from Nvidia than any other Chinese company in 2025, The Information reported, as it raced to secure computing power for more than a billion users amid concerns that Washington may restrict supplies.
In August, Chinese regulators asked local companies to suspend new orders for AI chips from Nvidia, and have since pressed companies to adopt domestic processors, Bloomberg reported, citing sources close to Chinese technology regulators.
“The regulatory landscape does not allow us to offer a competitive GPU for a data center in China, leaving this huge market to our fast-growing foreign competitors,” an Nvidia spokesperson told Reuters.
ByteDance did not immediately comment when contacted by Reuters.
China is accelerating its plans to build an alternative artificial intelligence ecosystem and achieve self-sufficiency in chips, even as trade tensions with Washington remain at a fragile standstill.
Washington has blocked sales of Nvidia’s most advanced chips to China, allowing only less powerful versions, such as the H20. Nvidia introduced a special processor for China, the RTX6000D, but demand has been shy, with some major tech companies choosing not to order the chip.