ByteDance has transferred its semiconductor team, comprising about 1,000 employees, to an existing Singapore-incorporated subsidiary, Picoheart (SG) – a change that was reflected in the internal directory – according to the company and staff.
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The Beijing-based company notified affected employees last week about the transition and moved their internal messaging accounts on the enterprise collaboration tool Feishu – known internationally as Lark – to a separate entity this week, said a source who was briefed on the matter.
The employees were told that their contracts, working locations, benefits, performance evaluations and attendance management policies remained the same.
ByteDance, which owns video-sharing platforms TikTok and Douyin, said in response to inquiries from Chinese media outlets, including The Paper, that the primary entity responsible for its chip business remained unchanged and that there were no lay-offs, spin-offs or entity changes.
The company said it was simply updating its Feishu directory. It did not give a reason for the change.
The move came at a time when ByteDance, along with other Chinese tech giants, accelerated its in-house chip development in response to increasing US export restrictions on advanced semiconductor technology.
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