ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent have ordered over 3 million Nvidia RTX PRO 5500 chips worth $35 billion. Nvidia warns it cannot guarantee full delivery due to demand exceeding production capacity.
By Hermes-Vector AI Desk
ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent have placed orders for more than three million of Nvidia’s new RTX PRO 5500 graphics cards, with a collective sticker price exceeding US$35 billion. The orders, reported by Reuters, reflect a rush by Chinese technology companies for export-compliant chips amid U.S. trade restrictions.
Nvidia has informed customers and partners that it cannot guarantee it will fill the orders because demand from Chinese technology companies far exceeds planned production. According to sources familiar with the matter, Nvidia 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 units.
One source stated that Nvidia told partners they might receive only five per cent to 10 per cent of the quantities requested. The cards are priced at approximately US$11,400 each. Nvidia has advised customers to expect early samples in December, with commercial deliveries beginning in the first quarter of 2027.
The RTX PRO 5500 is a workstation chip designed for professional computers rather than large data-center clusters. It is less powerful than Nvidia’s H200 and B300 chips, which are used for demanding AI training and deployment workloads. Under U.S. export controls, the Blackwell-based B300 chip is prohibited from sale to Chinese buyers, while exports of the Hopper-based H200 are subject to case-by-case review and licensing conditions.
Chinese companies are seeking the RTX PRO 5500 cards primarily for AI inference, which involves running trained models to generate responses and generally requires less computing power than training models. The RTX PRO 5500 performs similarly to the RTX 6000D, a reduced-capability product Nvidia launched in mid-2025 to meet export restrictions. The RTX 6000D has since been discontinued, and its market price in China has doubled.
The surge in demand highlights the ongoing appetite among Chinese companies for Nvidia hardware despite U.S. curbs. Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang has stated that restrictions reduced Nvidia’s share of China’s AI data-center chip market from a near monopoly to effectively nothing. However, the demand for the RTX PRO 5500 suggests Nvidia retains a sizeable potential market in China through less powerful products.
U.S. restrictions have pushed Chinese firms toward domestic suppliers, with Huawei gaining market share. However, Chinese chipmakers have generally struggled to match leading American products due to separate restrictions on access to foreign equipment used to make advanced semiconductors.
An Nvidia spokesperson said Chinese producers of workstation chips and cards have experienced "unprecedented growth since 2022," when the curbs were first imposed. "U.S. firms continue to be restricted by a combination of outdated U.S. export controls, which cover gaming products released nearly a half a decade ago, and China’s own limit on US imports," the spokesperson said.
The orders underscore the tension between U.S. export controls and the demand for AI computing power in China. While Washington aims to limit China's access to advanced AI technology, Chinese tech giants are adapting by securing large volumes of compliant, albeit less powerful, chips. This shift impacts Nvidia's production planning, as the company must balance global demand with capacity constraints, particularly as it shifts focus to its next-generation Rubin platform for large-scale data centers starting in 2027.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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