Chinese technology giant ByteDance is developing its own central processing units (CPUs) to support its growing AI infrastructure needs, three people familiar with the matter said, as surging chip prices and prolonged supply shortages constrain its expansion plans. The move underscores the industry's rapid shift toward "inference," where AI models are deployed to perform agentic tasks that demand more from CPUs, working in tandem with the graphics chips made by Nvidia that have dominated the AI boom. The shift has created a shortage of CPUs in recent months, and global hyperscalers including Alphabet's Google, Amazon and Microsoft are also developing their own custom CPUs to reduce costs and tailor performance to their specific workloads.
