ByteDance expands artificial intelligence operations in US

ByteDance is expanding its presence in the artificial intelligence sector in the United States, posting close to 100 job openings in its AI division, Seed. The company is recruiting employees in San Jose, Los Angeles, and Seattle as it tries to rival the top AI firms in the US, including OpenAI and Google.

This recruitment drive comes immediately after ByteDance completed the sale of its TikTok operations in the US to non-Chinese citizens in a bid to address long-held national security issues.

The job openings are for the development of large language models (LLMs), enhancing text, image, and video creation tools, as well as studying human-like AI models. Some roles are centred on scientific modelling for drug discovery and design.

According to Bloomberg, ByteDance’s chatbot app, Doubao, became China’s most downloaded AI chatbot for much of 2025. Earlier this year, the company launched Seedance 2.0, a video generation model, and Seedream 5.0, an image tool.

However, recently ByteDance’s  Seedance 2.0 has received criticism in the US. Walt Disney and Paramount Skydance have sent cease-and-desist letters, while the Motion Picture Association has accused ByteDance of using copyrighted works without authorisation.

US Senator and politician Pete Ricketts warned that AI leadership will shape geopolitical power. Former White House tech policy official Aaron Bartnick said ByteDance has access to vast compute power, data and capital, positioning it as a serious AI contender.