• ByteDance prepares to establish an AI R&D centre in Europe.
• Move follows ByteDance’s $2.13 billion investment in a Malaysian AI centre, Lark model, and Coze platform.

ByteDance, the tech giant behind TikTok, is making strategic moves to strengthen its AI capabilities by preparing to establish a new research and development centre in Europe. According to an exclusive report from Chinese media outlet AI Tech Review‘s ‘informed sources,’ the expansion comes at a crucial time: as European nations compete to position themselves as leaders in AI innovation, and global tech companies race to advance their AI capabilities.

The choice of Europe for ByteDance’s new AI centre is strategic, given the continent’s rich pool of technical talent and research institutions. Switzerland, the United Kingdom (UK), and France have emerged as potential locations offering unique advantages. 

Switzerland, home to prestigious institutions like ETH Zurich and EPFL Lausanne, has already proven its worth as a global robotics innovation hub. The UK and France are engaged in fierce competition to become Europe’s AI leader, with both nations making significant investments in AI research and development.

ByteDance’s European ambitions were first signalled when French businessman Xavier Niel, founder of Iliad, joined the company’s board of directors in September. The appointment suggested a particular interest in the French market and its AI ecosystem, which has received substantial government support in the form of AI training and research initiatives.

Global AI ambitions and recent developments

The planned European R&D centre is part of ByteDance’s broader global AI strategy. The company has already committed to a massive $2.13 billion investment in Malaysia for an AI centre, demonstrating its serious intentions to build a global AI infrastructure. 

This expansion comes after a series of significant AI developments in ByteDance throughout 2023:

• The launch of the “Lark” underlying model in August,
• The establishment of the Flow department focused on AI application research,
• The release of Coze, a platform for rapid AI application development,
• The introduction of two video generation models, PixelDance and Seaweed,
• A strategic partnership with Tsinghua AIR for large-model research.

The company has also been actively recruiting top talent, recently bringing on board Zhou Chang, the former technical head of Alibaba’s Tongyi Qianwen model, who has extensive experience developing large-scale multimodal pre-training models.

The developments indicate that ByteDance is expanding geographically and building a comprehensive AI ecosystem that spans multiple technologies and applications. The European R&D centre would complement these initiatives and accelerate the company’s AI capabilities in natural language processing, computer vision, and machine learning.

It is clear that establishing an AI R&D centre in Europe represents more than just geographical expansion; it’s a strategic move that could help ByteDance tap into Europe’s advanced AI research community while navigating the continent’s evolving AI regulations. 

As the global AI race intensifies, the investment could prove crucial in maintaining ByteDance’s competitive edge and supporting the AI features across its platform ecosystem, including TikTok.