SINGAPORE/BEIJING, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Chip design

workers at Chinese tech giant ByteDance, many based in Beijing

or Shanghai, unexpectedly found out last week that they are part

of a Singapore unit, three people familiar with the matter said.

The employees made the discovery when they were moved into a

new group on the company's internal messaging platform, two of

the people said.

Having chip design staff report into a Singapore unit may

help ByteDance navigate U.S.-China tensions as it seeks to

access advanced semiconductor technology.

Since late 2023, U.S. regulations have prevented companies

based in mainland China from using Taiwan's TSMC, the

world's biggest contract chip manufacturer, to produce advanced

AI chips above certain performance thresholds.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not

disclose the name of the unit.

Reuters was not able to learn how many of ByteDance's chip

design staff are part of this unit.

ByteDance, which is best known outside China as the owner of

TikTok, did not respond to a request for comment.

ByteDance is one of many tech firms worldwide ramping up

efforts to develop proprietary chips, known as

application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), in a bid to

reduce reliance on suppliers such as Nvidia ( NVDA ).

It does not currently outsource chip manufacturing to TSMC,

but sources said last year that it was working with U.S. chip

designer Broadcom ( AVGO ) on developing an advanced AI

processor that would be made by the Taiwanese firm.

ByteDance has a Singapore-registered entity called Picoheart

that the company incorporated in December 2023, according to

business registration records. Picoheart attracted attention

last year when it acquired a 9.5% stake in Chinese memory chip

maker Innostar.

ByteDance also has large data centers in Singapore and

TikTok's CEO, Shou Zi Chew, is based there.

ByteDance began hiring chip-related staff in earnest in

2022. It has, however, launched fewer chips than rivals such as

Alibaba ( BABA ) and Baidu ( BIDU ).

Currently, chips released by ByteDance can only handle

inference tasks, which are less computationally intensive than

training workloads, two of the sources said.

ByteDance's chip development portfolio includes video

decoding and networking chips, and it has a dedicated team

focusing on artificial intelligence applications, they added.

Recent job postings by the company show six positions

seeking chip-related talent, including one for its AI chip team.