Qualcomm is in talks to design custom chips for ByteDance, including potential video processing units (VPUs), as the US chip company looks to expand beyond smartphones.

People familiar with the matter said the work under discussion could use technology from AlphaWave Semi, a high-speed connectivity company Qualcomm agreed to acquire in 2025.

The companies are discussing mass production by the end of the year, although the talks may not lead to a final chip design or manufacturing deal.

The potential project fits Qualcomm’s strategy to move beyond smartphones into data-center and other AI infrastructure, where it has said custom silicon is a growth area.

For ByteDance, the TikTok parent, an outside chip designer could complement its reported chip efforts, as the company is developing AI chips for inference tasks and custom central processing units (CPUs).

US-China tensions over AI chips have affected other US tech companies, though export rules do not appear to be directly implicated in the Qualcomm-ByteDance talks.

🔗 Source: Reuters

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