- Microsoft bought nearly half a million flagship Hopper chips from Nvidia in 2024
- TikTok’s parent company ByteDance and Tencent bought almost the same amount
- This is more than Meta, Tesla/xAI, Amazon and Google
Chinese cloud giants Tencent and TikTok’s parent company ByteDance were the top buyers of Nvidia’s flagship AI chips in 2024, coming in second after Microsoft, according to an Omdia report and analysis by the Financial times.
The two Chinese companies ordered approximately 230,000 Nvidia Hopper GPUs each, including the H20 model, which was developed to meet strict US export restrictions on China.
The report reveals that Microsoft purchased 485,000 Hopper chips in 2024, far ahead of its competitors.
chinese influence
“Good data center infrastructure are very complex and capital-intensive projects,” said Alistair Speirs, senior director of Global Azure Infrastructure at Microsoft. Financial times. “They require several years of planning. “That’s why it’s important to forecast where our growth will be with a little bit of margin.”
In contrast, Meta purchased 224,000 Hopper GPUs in 2024, followed by Amazon and Google with 196,000 and 169,000 units, respectively. All three tech giants are increasingly moving away from reliance on Nvidia hardware by developing their own custom silicon. The Financial Times says Google deployed 1.5 million TPUs, Meta 1.5 million MTIA chips and Amazon 1.3 million Trainium and Inferentia chips, while Microsoft, still in its early stages, installed around 200,000 Maia chips. .
According to Omdia, Nvidia captured 43 percent of server hardware spending in 2024, but AMD also performed well: Microsoft bought 96,000 of its Instinct MI300 chips and Meta bought 173,000.
While Microsoft comfortably leads GPU acquisitions, the significant investments made by ByteDance and Tencent reflect the determination of Chinese companies to secure a strong position in the AI race, a momentum that is expected to continue until 2025.
By outspending Google, Meta, Tesla/xAI, and Amazon on units purchased, the two Chinese companies have proven they can compete with the biggest American tech giants, despite significant challenges posed by current trade restrictions that are expected to be lifted. intensify even more. under the Trump administration.
