Bytedance in talks to sell Moonton to Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games Group

According to Bloomberg, TikTok owner ByteDance is allegedly in talks to sell gaming studio Shanghai Moonton Technology Co. to Saudi Arabia-based Savvy Games Group.

The discussions are similar to those reported by the Chinese tech company regarding the sale of the maker of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang game (MLBB). Two years ago, the South China Morning Post reported that the Beijing-based company told employees that it would shut down most game projects.

The company had since been reported to be in talks with multiple potential buyers for its video game operations, including Moonton, the video game studio it acquired for $4 billion in 2021.

Moonton sale amidst a surge in performance of its projects

So far, ByteDance has cut some of its game creation and publishing teams, as it shifts focus toward the new growth driver of e-commerce. A sale of Moonton, if struck, would mark its biggest retreat in the attempt to conquer video gaming. 

This year, MLBB has solidified its position as one of the world’s top esports titles, emerging as the most-watched game in Esports World Cup (EWC) history. 

According to Esports Charts, MLBB accounted for over a quarter of EWC viewership, amassing over 50.32 million Hours Watched (HW) at the world’s largest multi-title esports event. To that end, MLBB is expected to return for the 2026 EWC.

Additionally, ByteDance reached a new valuation of approximately $480 billion after a Chinese investment firm acquired a block of its shares in a heated auction. As reported by Cryptopolitan, the stake, sold by the Bank of China Group Investment, was initially priced at around $200 million. It reflected a $360 billion valuation for ByteDance, but that price did not survive the bidding war for long.

The auction pulled in around seven bidders, the people said, and the number kept pushing the price higher. Capital Today, run by Kathy Xu, ultimately paid close to $300 million for the shares.

The deal also represented a markup from ByteDance’s recent valuations. The company initiated an employee share buyback program in September at a valuation of $330 billion.

Seven bidders participated in the auction, pushing the final valuation to $480 billion. This is a 45% increase from the September employee buyback price and a 33% jump from the initial offering price of up to $360 billion for this transaction.

The $480 billion figure places ByteDance close to OpenAI, currently valued at $500 billion. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has a valuation of roughly $400 billion. In comparison, social media giant Meta has a market cap of $1.49 trillion.

Chinese regulators block ByteDance from using Nvidia chips

In other news, Chinese regulators have blocked ByteDance from using Nvidia (NVDA) chips in new data centres. 

This ban underscores Beijing’s efforts to reduce reliance on US technology. The Chinese government issued guidance requiring new data centre projects that have received any state funds to use domestically made artificial intelligence chips. 

This campaign has intensified as Washington tightens curbs on the export of advanced semiconductors to China. Washington limited sales of Nvidia’s most advanced chips ​to China, allowing only scaled-down versions such as the H20. 

In ⁠August, Chinese regulators asked ‌local firms to halt new orders of Nvidia AI chips and have since pushed companies to adopt homegrown processors. “The regulatory landscape does not allow us to offer a competitive data center GPU in China, leaving that massive market to our ​rapidly growing foreign competitors,” Nvidia said.

ByteDance bought more Nvidia chips than ‌any other Chinese firm in 2025 as it raced to secure computing power for its billion-plus ‌users amid concerns Washington could curb supply, according to the report.

Sign up to Bybit and start trading with $30,050 in welcome gifts