ByteDance in Early Talks to List Chinese Short Video App Douyin in Hong Kong

TikTok-owner ByteDance is in discussions internally and with investment banks to list its Chinese short video app Douyin in Hong Kong. (Reuters)
TikTok-owner ByteDance is in discussions internally and with investment banks to list its Chinese short video app Douyin in Hong Kong. (Reuters)
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ByteDance in Early Talks to List Chinese Short Video App Douyin in Hong Kong

TikTok-owner ByteDance is in discussions internally and with investment banks to list its Chinese short video app Douyin in Hong Kong. (Reuters)
TikTok-owner ByteDance is in discussions internally and with investment banks to list its Chinese short video app Douyin in Hong Kong. (Reuters)

TikTok-owner ByteDance is in discussions internally and with investment banks to list its Chinese short video app Douyin in Hong Kong, according to two people familiar with the situation.

ByteDance has discussed internally about the potential scenario and its representatives have met several investment banks in recent weeks to talk about such a possibility for Douyin, one of the people said, adding that the talks are very preliminary.

TikTok is not available in China and Douyin is TikTok's Chinese counterpart.

Investment banks have been doing research and analysis about a standalone IPO for Douyin, according to the second person.

A ByteDance spokeswoman declined to comment on behalf of the company and Douyin. The people declined to be named as the information isn't public.

Reuters reported in July that ByteDance studied the possibility to list its China business, including Douyin, in Hong Kong or Shanghai's STAR Board, against a backdrop of rising Sino-US tensions over its hit non-China video app TikTok.

ByteDance has been under pressure in the United States to sell the popular app's US arm. The White House contends that TikTok poses national security concerns as personal data collected on 100 million Americans who use the app could be obtained by China's government. People briefed on the matter do not expect any final agreement on TikTok before the election, Reuters has reported.

US District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington issued a preliminary injunction on Sept. 27 that barred the US Commerce Department from ordering app stores to remove the Chinese-owned short video-sharing app for download by new users.

Douyin, where users watch and upload short videos, is hugely popular in China. Douyin said it amassed 600 million daily active users as of August.

ByteDance's other Chinese operations include news aggregator Jinri Toutiao, work collaboration tool Feishu and video-streaming app Xigua.



Huawei Shows off AI Computing System to Rival Nvidia’s Top Product

An AI (Artificial Intelligence) sign is seen at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China July 6, 2023. (Reuters)
An AI (Artificial Intelligence) sign is seen at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China July 6, 2023. (Reuters)
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Huawei Shows off AI Computing System to Rival Nvidia’s Top Product

An AI (Artificial Intelligence) sign is seen at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China July 6, 2023. (Reuters)
An AI (Artificial Intelligence) sign is seen at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China July 6, 2023. (Reuters)

China's Huawei Technologies showed off an AI computing system on Saturday that one industry expert has said rivals Nvidia's most advanced offering, as the Chinese technology giant seeks to capture market share in the country's growing artificial intelligence sector.

The CloudMatrix 384 system made its first public debut at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), a three-day event in Shanghai where companies showcase their latest AI innovations, drawing a large crowd to the company's booth.

The system has drawn close attention from the global AI community since Huawei first announced it in April. Industry analysts view it as a direct competitor to Nvidia's GB200 NVL72, the US chipmaker's most advanced system-level product currently available in the market.

Dylan Patel, founder of semiconductor research group SemiAnalysis, said in an April article that Huawei now had AI system capabilities that could beat Nvidia.

Huawei staff at its WAIC booth declined to comment when asked to introduce the CloudMatrix 384 system. A spokesperson for Huawei did not respond to questions.

Huawei has become widely regarded as China's most promising domestic supplier of chips essential for AI development, even though the company faces US export restrictions.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told Bloomberg in May that Huawei had been "moving quite fast" and named the CloudMatrix as an example.

The CloudMatrix 384 incorporates 384 of Huawei's latest 910C chips and outperforms Nvidia's GB200 NVL72 on some metrics, which uses 72 B200 chips, according to SemiAnalysis.

The performance stems from Huawei's system design capabilities, which compensate for weaker individual chip performance through the use of more chips and system-level innovations, SemiAnalysis said.

Huawei says the system uses "supernode" architecture that allows the chips to interconnect at super-high speeds and in June, Huawei Cloud CEO Zhang Pingan said the CloudMatrix 384 system was operational on Huawei's cloud platform.