Due to global chip shortage, many Chinese tech companies have begun to work on their self-designed chip.

TikTok-owner ByteDance is making plans to develop semiconductors. The plan is still at an early stage and the company's focus is on ARM-based server-side chips, according to Reuters. Beijing-based ByteDance has posted a dozen semiconductor-related job advertisements last month on its official website and the company has established a team to explore the development of artificial intelligence chips.

Besides, Xiaomi announced its first self-developed Image Signal Processing (ISP) chip, the Surge C1 last month. Xiaomi said they spent RMB 140 million (USD 21 million equivalent) during the research and development phase of the Surge C1 chip. It is an independent mobile phone imaging chip from Xiaomi with its own algorithm.

Not only Xiaomi and ByteDance, but also many other Chinese technology giants are stepping up efforts to design their own chips. For tech companies like Baidu and Alibaba, they are doing cutting-edge work in cloud computing and artificial intelligence, a self-designed chip that can better cater to specific internal needs than a chip purchased from another maker.

However, the semiconductor industry requires years of massive investment with no immediate huge return. Huawei-owned Hisilicon, for example, took more than a decade to establish in the global chip market, but it still can't compete with the dominant players. Thus, for new players in the chip game, it may be at least another few years before we can tell who's succeeding and who isn't.

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