ByteDance bypassed U.S. sanctions: its AI now runs on Nvidia B200 in Malaysia

Chinese AI developers face geopolitical barriers

For Chinese companies working in artificial intelligence, the complex international situation creates serious restrictions: American accelerators are banned not only in the United States but also on the territory of the PRC. There is no alternative for speed in the domestic market, so ByteDance is forced to look for workarounds.

What ByteDance does
* Building a data center in Malaysia – the company plans to set up data centers (DCs) equipped with Nvidia B200 accelerators (Blackwell architecture).

* Partnership with Aolani Cloud – a Southeast Asian firm registered in the Cayman Islands, building a DC in Malaysia with 36,000 B200 accelerators. These devices are banned from import into China due to U.S. sanctions.

* Supplying server systems – Aolani purchases equipment from manufacturer Aivres, which is an official Nvidia partner and receives first access to new accelerators.

Financial details
Metric Value Equipment cost for the new DC in Malaysia ≥ $2.5 million (probably $2.5 billion) Already invested in hardware ~ $100 million Advance from ByteDance to Aolani part of the sum confirming payment of the deal
ByteDance has already been renting a DC with Nvidia H100 accelerators from Aolani since February last year and now aims to move to the newer B200.

Geography of future centers
* Malaysia – main site for AI research, development, and customer service outside China.

* South Korea, Australia, Europe – planned launch sites for new computing capacity.

* Indonesia – already hosts more than 7,000 B200 accelerators serving part of ByteDance’s interests.

Why this matters to business
* External markets bring almost 25 % of TikTok’s total revenue (owner ByteDance).

* Five of the company’s apps are in the world’s top‑50 most popular (January of the current year).

* Development teams are located not only in China but also in Singapore and the United States; the U.S. staff is actively growing.

Thus, by investing in international data centers with high-performance Nvidia accelerators, ByteDance seeks to bypass sanctions restrictions, expand its AI infrastructure, and support its global growth.