중국 기술 대기업들이 수출 규제를 준수하는 엔비디아 칩 약 350억 달러어치를 구매하기 위해 서두르고 있다.
BEIJING, China: ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent have placed orders worth more than US$35 billion for Nvidia's new export-compliant graphics cards as Chinese technology companies scramble for AI computing power amid U.S. restrictions on more advanced chips.
The three Chinese technology giants have ordered more than three million RTX PRO 5500 graphics cards, according to two people familiar with the matter. The cards cost about $11,400 each.
Nvidia has told customers and partners it cannot guarantee it can fill orders because demand from Chinese tech companies far exceeds planned production, the two sources and a third person familiar with the matter said.
The RTX PRO 5500 is a workstation chip designed for powerful professional computers rather than the large data-center clusters that use Nvidia's most advanced AI processors. However, it is among the most powerful Nvidia chips still available to Chinese buyers.
Nvidia's Blackwell-based B300 data-center chip cannot be sold to Chinese buyers under U.S. export controls, while exports of its Hopper-based H200 are reviewed on a case-by-case basis and subject to licensing conditions.
One source said Nvidia told partners they might receive only 5 percent to 10 percent of the quantities requested. Another said the company had indicated it could produce no more than three million RTX PRO 5500 cards globally in 2027.
Total orders from customers in China have exceeded six million cards, two of the sources said.
The demand underscores Chinese companies' continued appetite for Nvidia hardware despite U.S. restrictions. Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang has said the curbs reduced the company's share of China's AI data-center chip market from near-monopoly to effectively nothing.
Washington's restrictions have pushed Chinese companies toward domestic suppliers, while Beijing has encouraged the use of homegrown chips. Huawei has gained market share, although Chinese chipmakers have generally struggled to match leading U.S. products.
An Nvidia spokesperson said Chinese producers of workstation chips and cards have experienced "unprecedented growth since 2022," when the restrictions were first imposed.
"U.S. firms continue to be restricted by a combination of outdated US export controls, which cover gaming products released nearly half a decade ago, and China's own limit on US imports," the spokesperson said.
ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent did not respond to requests for comment.
Chinese companies are seeking to use the RTX PRO 5500 primarily for AI inference, or running trained models to generate chatbot responses, according to the three sources.
Nvidia is expected to devote much of its capacity at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co from 2027 to Rubin, its next-generation platform for large-scale data centers, rather than products such as the RTX PRO 5500, two sources said.
Nvidia has told customers to expect early samples of the RTX PRO 5500 in December, with commercial deliveries beginning in the first quarter of 2027, they added.