China’s ByteDance to buy millions of Qualcomm chips following Trump’s China visit
A bit more than 10 days after Team America’s visit to China, US tech giant Qualcomm has reportedly agreed with TikTok owner ByteDance on an AI-related chip deal.
The Chinese internet giant will procure "millions" of ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) chips for its AI data centers as it expands into AI agent software, Bloomberg reported, citing undisclosed sources. Neither company has commented on the matter.
According to the report, the Chinese company would be the first major client for Qualcomm's AI-focused ASICs. In April, the US company's CEO, Cristiano Amon, already indicated that Qualcomm is engaging with potential customers for its new chips.
Another US giant, Nvidia, is still leading the market, but Qualcomm's expansion into the sector has now received a boost from the ByteDance deal, increasing competition with the current leader. Over the past 5 days, Qualcomm's shares jumped 26%, while Nvidia's dropped 2%.
The news about the deal was leaked almost immediately after US President Donald Trump's state visit to China on May 13th-15th, during which the two major countries agreed on a constructive US-China relationship. Seventeen bosses of American business giants went to China with Trump. Besides Qualcomm's CEO, the heads of Apple, Meta, Tesla/SpaceX, Visa, Goldman Sachs, Boeing, and others had a chance to deepen their business ties with Chinese companies.
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For now, besides Qualcomm, the only other deal announced after the visit was China's Commerce Ministry confirming an agreement to purchase 200 Boeing aircraft, plus engines and spare parts. However, analysts expected the deal to include around 500 jets.
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