Reports say ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent have ordered more than 3 million Nvidia chips worth about $35 billion, with demand far exceeding Nvidia's planned production. A separate report suggests the three may receive only about a tenth of the order.
ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent have ordered more than three million of Nvidia's new RTX PRO 5500 graphics cards, valued at over $35 billion, as Chinese technology companies seek powerful computing chips that comply with US export restrictions.
Two people familiar with the matter told Reuters that the orders, which have not been previously reported, reflect growing demand for Nvidia hardware in China despite Washington's restrictions on advanced semiconductor exports.
The US-based chipmaker has reportedly warned customers and partners that it cannot guarantee full deliveries because demand from Chinese technology companies far exceeds planned production. One source said Nvidia indicated that customers might receive only five to 10 per cent of the quantities requested. Another said the company expected to produce no more than three million RTX PRO 5500 cards globally in 2027, while total orders from Chinese customers have exceeded six million.
The three technology giants' orders are priced at approximately $11,400 per card, giving them a potential combined value of more than $35 billion, according to two of the sources, who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
The RTX PRO 5500 is a workstation graphics chip designed for high-performance professional computers rather than the large data-centre clusters used to run Nvidia's most advanced artificial intelligence processors. However, it is among the most powerful Nvidia chips currently available to Chinese buyers. Nvidia's Blackwell-based B300 data-centre chip is barred from sale to Chinese customers under US export controls, while exports of its Hopper-based H200 processor are subject to case-by-case reviews and licensing conditions.
Chinese technology companies are seeking to use the RTX PRO 5500 primarily for AI inference, the process through which trained models generate responses to user prompts. Inference generally requires less computing power than training AI models on massive datasets.
The surge in demand highlights the pressure on computing capacity in China, where companies are racing to develop advanced AI models and expand the technology's use across industries.
Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang has said US restrictions reduced the company's share of China's AI data-centre chip market from near-monopoly levels to effectively zero. However, demand for the RTX PRO 5500 suggests that less powerful products that remain accessible could provide Nvidia with another route into the Chinese market.
Washington's export controls have encouraged Chinese companies to seek alternatives from domestic suppliers, while Beijing has promoted the use of locally manufactured chips. Huawei has gained market share, although Chinese chipmakers have generally struggled to match leading American products, partly because restrictions have limited their access to advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
An Nvidia spokesperson said Chinese producers of workstation chips and graphics cards had experienced "unprecedented growth since 2022," when the restrictions were first imposed. The spokesperson added that US companies remained constrained by a combination of what Nvidia described as outdated American export controls and China's own restrictions on US imports.
ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent did not respond to requests for comment. The US Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security and China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also did not respond.
Nvidia's reported inability to guarantee deliveries reflects both rising demand and its manufacturing priorities. Two sources said Nvidia was expected to allocate much of its production capacity at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to Rubin, its next-generation platform for large-scale data centres, from 2027, rather than products such as the RTX PRO 5500. Nvidia has reportedly told customers to expect early samples in December, with commercial deliveries scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2027. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company declined to comment.
The RTX PRO 5500 is similar in performance to Nvidia's RTX 6000D, a reduced-capability product launched last year to comply with US export restrictions. Chinese technology companies initially showed limited interest in the RTX 6000D, with some declining to place orders because they considered the chips too expensive for their capabilities and expected Washington to permit sales of more powerful processors.
However, those expectations have diminished as restrictions have persisted and AI computing capacity has remained scarce, making the RTX PRO 5500 a more attractive alternative, two sources said. One source said the RTX 6000D had since been discontinued and its market price in China had doubled.
Separately, Shenzhen-listed fintech and AI-computing services company Tansun Technology disclosed in an October 13 filing that it had agreed to purchase 20,000 RTX PRO 5500 cards from an unidentified counterparty. The company warned that supply shortages, strong industry demand and overseas technology restrictions could delay deliveries or reduce the quantity supplied.