(Yicai Global) March 16 -- ByteDance has confirmed to Yicai Global that the TikTok owner is building a team to explore artificial intelligence chips.

The tech company is developing its own cloud AI chips and ARM-based server chips, it said today.

The Beijing-based firm has posted ads on major recruitment platforms to find front-end and back-end developers, as well as chip design, verification, and toolchain talents, in Beijing and Shanghai, 36Kr reported today.

ByteDance didn't disclose the future use of the technologies. However, its platforms, including Douyin and Toutiao, require server chips at data centers amid the fifth-generation wireless era.

Other Chinese tech firms are also eyeing their own semiconductors. Baidu’s AI chip unit Kunlun has completed a round of fundraising, led by Citic Private Equity Funds Management, resulting in a valuation of about USD2 billion, local media outlets reported yesterday.

Internet companies are striving to come up with their own server chips to reduce their dependence on third-party supplies, as well as to lower their costs with self-developed technologies, analysts told 36Kr.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi