- ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is preparing to use an AI server cluster consisting of approximately 36,000 Nvidia B200 Blackwell GPUs located in Malaysia for AI research and development, as the company cannot directly purchase these advanced GPUs in China due to US export restrictions.
- The server cluster, valued at approximately $2.5 billion, includes about 500 rack-scale NVL72 GB200 systems and will be owned and operated by the cloud provider Aolani Cloud in Malaysia.
- Hardware for the system is provided through Aivres, a company specializing in building servers based on Nvidia GPUs, while ByteDance will access AI resources through cloud services instead of direct ownership.
- Nvidia confirmed that ByteDance’s use of this infrastructure is legal as long as the hardware export complies with US Department of Commerce regulations, particularly those from the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).
- Aolani was established in late 2023 with a parent company structure in the Cayman Islands and is an Nvidia Tier-1 cloud partner, meaning it has access to the latest AI GPUs after passing Nvidia’s compliance checks.
- Previously, starting in February 2025, ByteDance rented AI servers using Nvidia H100 GPUs in Malaysia, showing that the international AI infrastructure rental model was tested before expanding to the large-scale Blackwell cluster.
- ByteDance is also reportedly considering deploying another AI cluster with more than 7,000 B200 GPUs at a data center in Indonesia.
- According to 2023 US export regulations, the law primarily controls the location of AI hardware exports and does not directly control where the computing power is used, so Chinese companies can still access advanced GPUs through the cloud located in other countries.
📌 This deal shows that Chinese tech companies are finding ways to access advanced AI computing power through international cloud infrastructure instead of directly purchasing restricted hardware. With a cluster of 36,000 Blackwell GPUs worth about $2.5 billion in Malaysia and the potential to expand by another 7,000 GPUs in Indonesia, ByteDance is building large-scale AI capabilities while still complying with US export regulations. This reflects the trend of “Global AI Compute Outsourcing,” where cloud access becomes a strategic factor in the AI competition.
