TikTok's Chinese parent ByteDance plans to develop an AI model trained primarily with chips from compatriot Huawei Technologies, three people familiar with the matter have said, as U.S. curbs turn the social media giant homeward in search of chips.

ByteDance has diversified to domestic suppliers of chips used in artificial intelligence and has accelerated development of its own since the U.S. started restricting exports of advanced AI chips, such as from market leader Nvidia, in 2022.

AI has become central to the technology industry, with firms in sectors as varied as gaming and e-commerce differentiating offerings through the integration of custom AI models — programs that employ pattern recognition to make decisions.