ByteDance

ByteDance is a Beijing-based company that operates some of the world’s most popular social media platforms, including TikTok and Douyin. Founded in 2012, the company has quickly grown into one of the largest and most innovative technology firms globally, with a focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Notable executives include founder Zhang Yiming, CEO Liang Rubo and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. ByteDance has recently faced scrutiny from governments and competitors over data privacy and national security concerns. Despite these challenges, the company remains a major player in the global technology industry, with a growing footprint in markets around the world.

Recent Articles about ByteDance

Pony Ma, CEO, of Tencent Holdings. Photo by Justin Chin/ Getty Images

Tencent Joins China’s AI Agent Race With ‘Top-Secret’ WeChat Project

By Qianer Liu and Juro Osawa · Mar 10, 2026 6:00am PDT

Tencent Holdings is secretly building a new AI agent for its hugely popular WeChat messaging app, in hopes of leapfrogging rivals like Alibaba Group and ByteDance in the race to dominate China’s domestic AI market, according to four people familiar with the project. The project could dramatically widen how AI agents, which take actions on... Tencent Holdings is secretly building a new AI agent for its hugely popular WeChat messaging app,...

Art by Clark Miller

Demand from Alibaba and Other Giants Boosts China’s Homegrown Memory Suppliers

By Qianer Liu · Mar 5, 2026 6:00am PST

Chinese tech heavyweights including Alibaba Group, ByteDance and Tencent Holdings are turning to domestic chipmakers to ease the pain from a deepening global shortage of memory chips, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter. The three companies are in talks to buy more standard memory chips—known as DRAM, or dynamic... Chinese tech heavyweights including Alibaba Group, ByteDance and Tencent Holdings are turning to...

Art via Getty Images

OpenAI’s Next AI Model Will Have ‘Extreme’ Reasoning

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 4, 2026 7:00am PST · 1 comment

OpenAI’s next GPT model is coming—and soon, according to a person with knowledge of it.Among the highlights, the new model, GPT-5.4, will have more than double the context window of the current GPT-5.2 model. That means the model can handle queries with many more words or data, up to 1 million tokens compared to 400,000 tokens today, the person... OpenAI’s next GPT model is coming—and soon, according to a person with knowledge of it.Among the...

Art by Clark Miller.

OpenClaw Rips Through China’s Tech and Startup Landscape

By Juro Osawa · Mar 4, 2026 6:00am PST

Art by Clark Miller.

OpenClaw Rips Through China’s Tech and Startup Landscape

By Juro Osawa · Mar 4, 2026 6:00am PST

OpenClaw mania has swept across China. Last month, at a five-day online hackathon organized by a Hangzhou-based AI startup, one contestant developed the equivalent of Tinder for AI agents seeking love interests on behalf of their human owners. Another created a recruiting site where job seekers’ AI agents talk to employers’ AI agents. A third... OpenClaw mania has swept across China. Last month, at a five-day online hackathon organized by a...

Image from Getty Images.

A Robot Data Startup Raises $60 Million

By Rocket Drew · Feb 26, 2026 7:00am PST

Companies developing AI models to power humanoid and other robots have been hard at work collecting videos and other data for training their models, even paying people to record themselves completing tasks in homes and workplaces. As these data-collection efforts start to pay off, and robots take on some of those tasks, the robot developers... Companies developing AI models to power humanoid and other robots have been hard at work...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Bridget Bennett/Getty Images.

Nvidia and Salesforce Show Different Sides of AI

By Martin Peers · Feb 25, 2026 5:00pm PST

It was a tale of two AI cities when Nvidia and Salesforce on Wednesday reported the January-quarter earnings that ended their 2026 fiscal years. Nvidia kept its place at the top of the class, reporting better than projected 73% revenue growth. Net income rose 94% to $42.9 billion. For the full fiscal year, Nvidia had revenue of $216 billion and... It was a tale of two AI cities when Nvidia and Salesforce on Wednesday reported the...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi today. Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images.

What OpenAI's Funding Says About Google's Value

By Martin Peers · Feb 19, 2026 5:00pm PST

The nervous Nellies in the investor community sold tech stocks again on Thursday, dragging down the Nasdaq 0.4%. Sounds like a normal day in February 2026, you might say. But it’s striking how anxieties about the disruption caused by AI continue to weigh on stock prices, including those of leading AI firms like Google, even as private AI leaders... The nervous Nellies in the investor community sold tech stocks again on Thursday, dragging down...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

China’s AI Giveaway War

By Juro Osawa · Feb 17, 2026 7:05am PST

Art by Mike Sullivan.

China’s AI Giveaway War

By Juro Osawa · Feb 17, 2026 7:05am PST

U.S. AI firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic haven’t yet turned a profit but they’re trying to get on the path to doing so. In China, the big tech firms behind AI chatbots are fighting a different battle.Chinese tech firms are competing so intensely to draw people to use their AI chatbots that they’re spending this week’s Lunar New Year holidays... U.S. AI firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic haven’t yet turned a profit but they’re trying to get...

Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images

AI Is Magnifying Google and Meta’s Edge in Ads

By Martin Peers · Feb 16, 2026 3:00pm PST

We could see a brief shift away from obsessive AI talk this week. On Wednesday, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg is due to testify in the Los Angeles trial hearing a lawsuit filed by a young California woman against big tech firms, namely Google and Meta. The woman claims her social media addiction led to depression and suicidal thoughts, as ... We could see a brief shift away from obsessive AI talk this week. On Wednesday, Meta Platforms...