ByteDance is developing a custom CPU to support AI requirements.

According to Reuters, people familiar with the matter said ByteDance is developing its own CPU to meet its rapidly growing AI infrastructure needs. Soaring chip prices and persistent long-term supply shortages are currently constraining the company’s expansion plans. This move highlights the industry’s accelerating shift toward the “inference” phase—a stage that significantly increases demand for CPUs and has triggered CPU shortages in recent months. The sources said ByteDance plans to deploy its in-house CPUs in its own servers and data centers to support internal operations and prepare for the large-scale rollout of agent-based products—including its Coze platform. ByteDance is currently pursuing two CPU architecture paths in parallel: one based on the Arm architecture and another based on the open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture, to evaluate which design better suits its long-term data center requirements. ByteDance currently procures CPUs from Intel and AMD—both of which have raised prices substantially over the past few months, with quarterly-on-quarter increases ranging from 10% to 35%. This has prompted ByteDance to accelerate the development of its internal alternative solutions.