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

Photo by Getty Images; Art by Mike Sullivan

OpenAI Developing ‘Garlic’ Model to Counter Google’s Recent Gains

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 2, 2025 7:00am PST · 2 comments

OpenAI, which in recent weeks has appeared to fall behind Google in AI development, is fighting back with a new large language model codenamed Garlic.Last week, OpenAI’s chief research officer Mark Chen told some colleagues about the new model, which was performing well on the company’s evaluations, at least when compared to Gemini 3 and ... OpenAI, which in recent weeks has appeared to fall behind Google in AI development, is fighting...

Ilya Sutskever and Dwarkesh Patel. Screenshot via YouTube

OpenAI Co-Founder Sutskever Joins the Skeptics

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 1, 2025 7:00am PST · 3 comments

As Sri and I head to San Diego for the annual Neural Information Processing Systems conference this week (get in touch if you’ll also be there!), we’re excited to learn more about reinforcement learning, the model training technique du jour at all the major AI developers.There’s rising skepticism among researchers, including OpenAI co-founder ... As Sri and I head to San Diego for the annual Neural Information Processing Systems conference...

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ByteDance Challenges Alibaba’s Reign in China’s AI Cloud Market

By Juro Osawa · Dec 1, 2025 4:00am PST

ByteDance is best known in the U.S. as the owner of TikTok. In China, the tech giant is also becoming known as a major force in cloud computing—so much so that it is now threatening Alibaba Group, long the undisputed king of cloud services in China. In one sign of the intensifying rivalry, executives at Alibaba have started to focus on the... ByteDance is best known in the U.S. as the owner of TikTok. In China, the tech giant is also...

Why China Doesn’t Want to Buy More Nvidia Chips

By Qianer Liu · Nov 30, 2025 7:59am PST · 3 comments

Sunday Insights

Why China Doesn’t Want to Buy More Nvidia Chips

By Qianer Liu · Nov 30, 2025 7:59am PST · 3 comments

Three years after the U.S.’s sweeping export restrictions that cut off Chinese access to AI chips, China has managed to turn the situation around. For the next five years, it will have more AI chips than its companies need. The excessive supply is a combination of local chipmakers catching up and tech companies stockpiling Nvidia chips via both... Three years after the U.S.’s sweeping export restrictions that cut off Chinese access to AI...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

China Is Slowly but Surely Breaking Free From Nvidia

By Qianer Liu · Nov 26, 2025 4:00am PST

ByteDance bought more Nvidia chips than any other Chinese company in 2025, according to three people with direct knowledge of its purchases. Racing to secure computing power for its billion-plus users and fearing Washington might suddenly cut off supply, the TikTok parent hoarded its stock of the chips. ByteDance’s fears about a supply crunch... ByteDance bought more Nvidia chips than any other Chinese company in 2025, according to three...

Alfred Lin, Roelof Botha and Pat Grady of Sequoia. Photos by Getty.

Before Sequoia’s Botha Stepped Down, Concerns Over Leadership Simmered

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Katie Roof · Nov 7, 2025 12:38pm PST · 1 comment

Before Sequoia Capital’s leader Roelof Botha announced he was stepping down from the position, partners Alfred Lin, Pat Grady and Andrew Reed came to him to talk about his time at the firm. Botha had only held the top-most job at the firm for three years, taking over from long-time leader Doug Leone just as startup valuations were convulsing... Before Sequoia Capital’s leader Roelof Botha announced he was stepping down from the position,...

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China Fast-Tracks Tech IPOs to Counter US AI Rivalry

By Juro Osawa and Qianer Liu · Oct 29, 2025 8:00am PDT

The tech rivalry with the U.S. has made China take an unusual step: It is accelerating the pace at which startups go public in hopes of increasing investment in the tech sector. In recent months, securities regulators in China approved the public listings of two chip designers, MetaX and Moore Threads, in less than three months. Chinese... The tech rivalry with the U.S. has made China take an unusual step: It is accelerating the pace...

Photo by Getty Images

TikTok Empowers Chinese Executives in Management Revamp

By Juro Osawa · Oct 23, 2025 5:52am PDT · 1 comment

Photo by Getty Images

TikTok Empowers Chinese Executives in Management Revamp

By Juro Osawa · Oct 23, 2025 5:52am PDT · 1 comment

TikTok is implementing drastic leadership changes that pull the video app closer to the orbit of its parent ByteDance, just as Washington and Beijing are on the cusp of reaching a deal over the app’s future in the U.S. TikTok’s global content and distribution partnership teams, both led by Western executives, will be moved under Fiona Zhi, a ... TikTok is implementing drastic leadership changes that pull the video app closer to the orbit of...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Can Microsoft Resist Trump’s Call for Exec’s Firing as Tech Bends to His Will?

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Oct 9, 2025 6:00am PDT · 10 comments

Recently, President Donald Trump demanded that Microsoft sack its head of global affairs, Lisa Monaco, over her past roles in the Biden and Obama administrations. He added that her position was “unacceptable” given Microsoft’s major contracts with the U.S. government. Microsoft hasn’t yet responded publicly to Trump’s demand. If Monaco stays at... Recently, President Donald Trump demanded that Microsoft sack its head of global affairs, Lisa...

Image via Clark Miller

Internal Oracle Data Show Financial Challenge of Renting Out Nvidia Chips

By Anissa Gardizy, Anita Ramaswamy and Cory Weinberg · Oct 7, 2025 8:00am PDT · 8 comments

Oracle became the best-performing megacap stock of 2025 after its executives said last month that the once-sleepy database firm will generate an astonishing $381 billion in revenue from renting out specialized cloud servers to OpenAI and other artificial intelligence developers over the next five fiscal years. But internal documents show the... Oracle became the best-performing megacap stock of 2025 after its executives said last month that...

Art via Mike Sullivan

Why OpenAI Offered to Pay $500 Million For A Startup With Videogame Data

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Oct 6, 2025 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

Before we get to today’s column, in a sign of how insatiable OpenAI’s appetite for computing power is, the ChatGPT-maker and Nvidia rival Advanced Micro Devices announced a partnership Monday morning that would see OpenAI deploy six gigawatts of AMD’s chips over multiple years, starting in the second half of next year. As part of the deal,... Before we get to today’s column, in a sign of how insatiable OpenAI’s appetite for computing...

Art by Clark Miller.

Beyond the Ban: The Complex Questions Raised by TikTok’s New Deal

By The Information Staff · Oct 2, 2025 6:39am PDT

Art by Clark Miller.

Beyond the Ban: The Complex Questions Raised by TikTok’s New Deal

By The Information Staff · Oct 2, 2025 6:39am PDT

Following the President’s recent executive order, a path has been created for TikTok to continue operating in the U.S. However, the proposed deal is proving to be a highly complex and controversial arrangement, raising new questions about the company’s future. We turned to our Deep Research AI to get insights. Following the President’s recent executive order, a path has been created for TikTok to continue...

Adam Presser. Photo via Getty

TikTok Insiders Bet No. 2, Adam Presser, Will Run New Venture

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan and Juro Osawa · Oct 1, 2025 10:08am PDT · 2 comments

President Donald Trump’s recent announcement that a joint venture will oversee TikTok’s U.S. business left unanswered the important question of who will run the new company. Inside TikTok, executives say there’s a very obvious candidate: Adam Presser, the longtime No. 2 to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, and one of the top Americans at the company. In... President Donald Trump’s recent announcement that a joint venture will oversee TikTok’s U.S....

Silver Lake's Egon Durban. Photo via Getty

Silver Lake’s Big Week

By Cory Weinberg · Sep 26, 2025 5:00pm PDT

This week’s biggest business headlines should convince you: One of the most interesting non-founders in tech or finance is Silver Lake’s Egon Durban.First, the under-the-radar tech investor squeezed into the middle of the Trump administration’s deal to split TikTok from its Chinese parent company, and at a seemingly bargain-basement price.... This week’s biggest business headlines should convince you: One of the most interesting...

Vice President J.D. Vance, left, and President Donald Trump. Photo via Getty

TikTok’s Fire Sale

By Martin Peers · Sep 25, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Talk about a fire-sale price. That’s the only way to describe the $14 billion valuation we learned today is being put on TikTok U.S. in the Trump administration–orchestrated sale of the app. Given what we’ve reported about TikTok parent ByteDance’s revenues, and our guesstimate about how much came from TikTok, the valuation may be less than one... Talk about a fire-sale price. That’s the only way to describe the $14 billion valuation we...