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Qualcomm $QCOM +4.91% reached a deal with TikTok owner ByteDance to supply chips for AI data centers, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.
Millions of Qualcomm application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, are expected to flow to ByteDance under the agreement to underpin the Chinese firm's AI agent software, according to Bloomberg. Landing ByteDance would give Qualcomm one of its earliest high-profile buyers for AI-focused ASICs, a product line central to the chipmaker's push into data center markets beyond its smartphone roots.
A separate source told Bloomberg that the partnership extends to chip manufacturing services, with Qualcomm helping ByteDance bring a proprietary chip design it has already finished through the production process.
At an earnings call last month, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon outlined a three-part chip roadmap covering custom ASICs, inference accelerators, and central processing units. Without disclosing any names, Amon referenced active customer "engagement" during that call, comments that Bloomberg noted had already sparked a rally in Qualcomm shares.
