According to Finance, Lin Xi, a core member of ByteDance's AI hardware team (Ocean) and the head of Douyin's mobile hardware products, has recently confirmed his resignation. As the first core hardware executive to leave since ByteDance launched its AI phone project in 2024, this move has drawn widespread attention in the industry regarding the progress of ByteDance's AI hardware strategy.
Public information shows that Lin Xi previously worked for Huawei Terminal for a long time and served as the hardware product manager for the Pura X foldable phone, with extensive experience in hardware R&D. In 2026, as ByteDance accelerated its AI phone project, Lin joined the Ocean team at ByteDance and reported directly to Kayden (Liu Chengcheng).
This key personnel change comes at a critical stage for ByteDance's large model hardware deployment. On December 1, 2025, ByteDance's AI assistant "Douyin" collaborated with ZTE to jointly launch the engineering prototype Nubia M153, which features the preview version of the Douyin phone assistant technology. This product is positioned as a system-level AI assistant, aiming to reshape the user experience of smartphone operating systems by leveraging the capabilities of the Douyin large model and deep authorization from smartphone manufacturers.
