STORY: Chinese tech giant ByteDance is developing its own central processing units (CPUs) to support its growing AI infrastructure needs, according to three sources.The TikTok-parent's move comes as surging chip prices and prolonged supply shortages constrain its expansion plans.It shows the industry's rapid shift towards autonomous AI models that demand more from CPUs.Working in tandem with the dominant graphics chips made by Nvidia.But it's created a shortage of CPUs in recent months.A growing number of tech companies have concluded the economics of custom chips outweigh the complexity of designing them.Global hyperscalers including Google, Amazon and Microsoft are also developing their own custom CPUs.They aim to reduce costs and tailor to their specific workloads.The first source said Bytedance is targeting deployment of its own CPU in its servers and data centers to support internal operations.That's as it prepares a massive rollout of agent-based products.The Beijing-based company has approached several external partners to assist with the effort, the sources claim.ByteDance did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.