ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent Place Over $35 Billion in Nvidia Chip Orders, Buying Up China-Compliant RTX PRO 5500

What happened

The orders had not been previously reported. Two people familiar with the matter told Reuters the three companies' orders work out to about $11,400 per card, worth more than $35 billion combined; other sources said total orders for the RTX PRO 5500 from customers in China have exceeded 6 million cards. The sources requested anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Two other sources and a third person familiar with the matter said Nvidia has told customers and partners it cannot guarantee filling all orders because demand from Chinese technology companies far exceeds planned production. Three sources said the Chinese companies primarily want the cards for AI inference — running trained models to generate responses — which requires less computing power than training models on massive datasets.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has said the restrictions reduced Nvidia's share of China's AI data-centre chip market from a near monopoly to effectively nothing. ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent, the US Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security and China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment; TSMC declined to comment.

Chinese producers of workstation chips and cards have experienced "unprecedented growth since 2022," when the curbs were first imposed. US firms continue to be restricted by a combination of outdated US export controls, which cover gaming products released nearly a half a decade ago, and China's own limit on US imports.

— Nvidia spokesperson (quoted by Reuters)

Key facts

1. Order scale: The three companies ordered more than 3 million cards at about $11,400 each, worth over $35 billion; two sources said total orders from customers in China have exceeded 6 million cards, not previously reported.
2. Supply gap: One source said Nvidia told partners they might receive only 5%–10% of requested quantities; another said the company could produce no more than 3 million RTX PRO 5500 cards globally in 2027.
3. Delivery timeline: Nvidia told customers to expect early samples in December, with commercial deliveries beginning in the first quarter of 2027; from 2027 much of its TSMC capacity will go to the next-generation Rubin platform rather than products like the RTX PRO 5500.
4. Product positioning: The RTX PRO 5500 is built on the Blackwell architecture with 84GB of GDDR7 ECC memory, designed for rack-mounted workstation deployment; Nvidia lists physical and agentic AI, generative AI and LLM inference among its target workloads. It is among the most powerful Nvidia chips still available to Chinese buyers, and product specifications seen by Reuters show performance similar to the RTX 6000D.
5. Previous generation: Last year's compliant RTX 6000D has been discontinued and its market price in China has doubled; Reuters reported last year that major firms initially showed little interest, with some declining to place orders, as buyers viewed the chips as overly expensive given their capabilities and hoped Washington would eventually allow sales of more powerful processors.
6. Follow-on buying: Shenzhen-listed fintech and AI-computing services company Tianyang Technology (300872.SZ; rendered by Reuters as Tansun Technology) said in an October 13 filing it had agreed to buy 20,000 RTX PRO 5500 cards from an unidentified counterparty, cautioning that supply shortages and overseas technology controls could delay deliveries or reduce volumes.

Background

US export controls on AI chips to China began in 2022. Under current rules, Nvidia's Blackwell-based B300 data-centre chip may not be sold to China, while exports of its Hopper-based H200 are reviewed case by case with licensing conditions. The RTX PRO 5500 sits in the less-powerful-but-export-compliant tier, making it one of the most powerful Nvidia chips Chinese buyers can still purchase.

The curbs have also pushed Chinese firms toward domestic suppliers. Reuters wrote that Huawei, in particular, has gained market share, though Chinese chipmakers have generally struggled to match leading American products, partly because access to the foreign equipment used to make the most advanced semiconductors is restricted.

In the middle of last year Nvidia launched the reduced-capability, compliant RTX 6000D. Reuters reported at the time that major firms initially showed little interest, with some declining to place orders, as buyers viewed the chips as overly expensive given their capabilities and hoped Washington would eventually allow sales of more powerful processors. With curbs sustained and computing capacity scarce, two sources said the RTX PRO 5500 has now become a more attractive substitute.

The demand shift also shows in intended use: three sources said the Chinese companies primarily want the cards for AI inference. Inference means running trained models to generate responses and requires less computing power than training; Nvidia's official materials likewise list "generative AI and LLM inference" among the RTX PRO 5500's target workloads.