China's three largest technology companies — ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent — have placed orders for more than 3 million of Nvidia's new RTX PRO 5500 graphics cards, worth over $35 billion at the sticker price, according to Reuters reporting on October 20, 2026, in a scramble for one of the most powerful AI-capable chips still legally available to Chinese buyers under US export controls.
Illustration: AI graphics processor chips stockpiled for export-compliant shipment to China. This is an AI-generated illustration, not a photograph of the real hardware.
What Happened
ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent have ordered more than 3 million of Nvidia's RTX PRO 5500 graphics cards, with a collective sticker price exceeding $35 billion, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The scale of the orders, which had not previously been reported, was disclosed on Tuesday, October 20, 2026.
The orders are a direct response to Washington's tightening restrictions on selling advanced AI processors to China. Nvidia's Blackwell-based B300 data-center chip — its most advanced processor for large-scale AI workloads — is not allowed to be sold to Chinese buyers under the controls, while exports of its Hopper-based H200 are reviewed on a case-by-case basis and remain subject to licensing conditions. The RTX PRO 5500, by contrast, is a workstation chip designed for powerful professional computers, but it is among the most powerful Nvidia chips still available to Chinese buyers.
Yet even this workaround may fall short of demand. Nvidia has told customers and partners it cannot guarantee that it can fill the orders, because demand from Chinese technology companies far exceeds planned production, according to two of the sources plus a third person familiar with the matter. All three requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
One source said Nvidia told partners they might receive only 5% to 10% of the quantities they requested. Another said the company had indicated it could produce no more than 3 million RTX PRO 5500 cards globally in 2027 — while total orders from customers in China alone have already exceeded 6 million. The cards are priced at about $11,400 each, two of the sources said, giving the three giants' combined order its $35-billion-plus sticker value.
The rush is not limited to the giants. In an October 13 filing with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, fintech and AI-computing services company Tansun Technology said it had agreed to buy 20,000 RTX PRO 5500 cards from an unidentified counterparty. Tansun cautioned that supply shortages, industry demand and overseas technology controls could delay deliveries or reduce volumes.
Reuters reported that 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. ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Neither did the US Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, which oversees the export controls, nor China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Background
To understand why three of the world's most valuable technology companies are scrambling for a workstation graphics card, it helps to know what has happened to Nvidia's China business since 2022, when the United States first imposed export controls on advanced semiconductors and the equipment used to make them.
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has said the restrictions reduced Nvidia's share of China's AI data-center chip market from a near monopoly to effectively nothing. The company's flagship chips for training and running large AI models — first the A100 and H100, then the Hopper-based H200 and now the Blackwell-based B300 — have been progressively fenced off from Chinese customers as Washington tightened the rules.
Each time, Nvidia has tried to design reduced-capability products that sit just under the control thresholds. Nvidia launched the RTX 6000D in the middle of 2025 as exactly such a product: a cut-down card meant to satisfy both US regulators and Chinese buyers. It flopped. Major Chinese tech firms initially showed little interest, and some declined to place orders at all, Reuters reported last year. Buyers viewed the chips as overly expensive for what they could do, and many hoped Washington would eventually relent and allow sales of more powerful Nvidia processors.
Those hopes have faded. The restrictions have remained firmly in place, and computing capacity for AI development in China has stayed scarce. That has made the RTX PRO 5500 — similar in performance to the older RTX 6000D, according to product specifications seen by Reuters — a far more attractive substitute, two of the sources said. Where companies once held out for the best chips, they are now fighting over the best chip they can actually buy.
The three sources told Reuters that Chinese companies are seeking to use the RTX PRO 5500 cards primarily for AI inference — running already-trained models to generate chatbot responses, recommendations and other outputs — rather than for training new models from scratch. Inference generally requires less computing power than training on massive datasets, so the workstation-class cards can fill a real gap even though they cannot match the data-center chips in the largest clusters.
Illustration: a hyperscale data center hall running AI inference workloads. This is an AI-generated illustration, not a photo of a real facility.
The orders also reflect how the shortage is spreading beyond the biggest names. The RTX 6000D has since been discontinued, and its market price in China has doubled, one source told Reuters — a sign of how tight supply has become for anything approaching data-center-grade performance.
Nvidia's inability to promise full deliveries reflects both the surge in demand and the company's own manufacturing priorities, two of the sources said. Starting in 2027, Nvidia is expected to devote much of its capacity at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to Rubin, its next-generation platform for large-scale data centers, rather than products like the RTX PRO 5500. TSMC declined to comment. That means the workstation card — already facing demand roughly double what Nvidia can build — is competing for factory time against the company's future flagship.
Why It Matters
The $35-billion order book is the clearest signal yet of the scale of China's AI computing hunger — and of how far Washington's export controls have reshaped the global chip market without fully choking off demand.
First, it shows the curbs are working in one sense and failing in another. They have clearly worked in pushing Chinese buyers down the performance ladder: companies that would once have bought Nvidia's finest chips are now ordering workstation cards at $11,400 apiece for inference workloads. But they have equally clearly not eliminated Chinese demand for American hardware. As Reuters put it, the scale of the orders "underscores the ongoing appetite among Chinese companies for Nvidia hardware despite the US curbs" — demand so large that Nvidia cannot fill it.
Second, the shortage is accelerating China's push toward domestic suppliers, with consequences that will outlast any single product cycle. Beijing has encouraged the use of homegrown chips, and Huawei in particular has gained market share. Chinese chipmakers have generally struggled to match leading American products, partly because separate restrictions have limited their access to the foreign equipment used to make the most advanced semiconductors — but every scarcity episode like this one creates another incentive for Chinese firms to commit to domestic alternatives.
Third, the episode highlights the compliance tightrope Nvidia must walk. An Nvidia spokesperson told Reuters that Chinese producers of workstation chips and cards have experienced "unprecedented growth since 2022," when the curbs were first imposed — a pointed remark suggesting American controls have perversely boosted Chinese competitors in the lower-performance segments while blocking US firms from them. The spokesperson added that "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." Beijing, for its part, has its own limits on American chip imports, squeezing Nvidia from both sides.
Finally, the orders put real money behind one of the year's most contested debates in technology: how fast China's AI ecosystem can keep pace with American rivals as compute supplies tighten. The $35-billion commitment is a bet by ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent that inference demand — serving AI answers to hundreds of millions of users — will keep growing regardless of the export-control regime.
Illustration: a semiconductor wafer above a world map symbolizing the US-China chip trade standoff. This is an AI-generated illustration, not a real scene.
What Happens Next
The immediate test is whether Nvidia can deliver. Early samples are expected in December, with commercial deliveries beginning in the first quarter of 2027 — and with total Chinese orders already running at roughly double the 3 million cards Nvidia can produce globally in 2027, most buyers should expect only a fraction of what they asked for. One source said partners were warned to expect just 5% to 10% of requested quantities.
Longer term, the allocation fight inside Nvidia matters as much as the totals. If the company does devote much of its TSMC capacity to the Rubin platform for large-scale data centers starting in 2027, the RTX PRO 5500 will remain a constrained, lower-priority product — keeping Chinese supply tight and prices high, and sustaining the market for domestic alternatives like Huawei's offerings.
Washington's posture is the other variable. The current regime reviews H200 exports case by case; any further tightening — or any loosening, should trade negotiations between the US and China change course — would reshape the market for everything below it. The Bureau of Industry and Security declined to comment on the record, leaving the trajectory of policy uncertain.
For ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent, the orders secure a computing pipeline for AI inference through 2027, even if only partially filled. For Nvidia, they represent tens of billions of dollars of demand the company can see but may not be able to fully serve — a measure, in hard numbers, of how the US-China technology contest has redrawn the map of who can buy computing power, and how much of it.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How much have ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent ordered from Nvidia?
The three companies have ordered more than 3 million RTX PRO 5500 graphics cards between them, worth over $35 billion at about $11,400 per card, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke to Reuters on October 20, 2026. The figures have not been confirmed by the companies.
What is the RTX PRO 5500?
It is a workstation graphics card designed for powerful professional computers rather than the large data-center clusters that use Nvidia's most advanced AI processors. It is less powerful than Nvidia's H200 and B300 chips, but it is among the most powerful Nvidia chips still available to Chinese buyers under US export controls. Its performance is similar to the RTX 6000D, the reduced-capability card Nvidia launched in mid-2025.
Why can't Chinese companies buy Nvidia's best chips?
US export controls bar the sale of Nvidia's Blackwell-based B300 data-center chip to Chinese buyers, and exports of the Hopper-based H200 are reviewed case by case under licensing conditions. The restrictions, first imposed in 2022 and tightened since, aim to limit China's access to computing power for advanced AI. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has said the controls reduced Nvidia's share of China's AI data-center chip market from a near monopoly to effectively nothing.
Will Nvidia be able to fill the $35 billion in orders?
Probably not in full. Nvidia has told customers and partners it cannot guarantee full deliveries because demand far exceeds planned production. One source said partners were told to expect only 5% to 10% of requested quantities; another said Nvidia could build no more than 3 million RTX PRO 5500 cards globally in 2027, while total Chinese orders have already exceeded 6 million. Early samples are expected in December, with commercial deliveries from the first quarter of 2027.
How are Chinese firms coping with the chip shortage?
US curbs have pushed Chinese companies toward domestic suppliers, and Beijing has encouraged the use of homegrown chips. Huawei in particular has gained market share, though Chinese chipmakers have generally struggled to match leading American products — partly because separate restrictions limit their access to the foreign equipment used to make the most advanced semiconductors.
Sources
- Reuters — "ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent place over $35 billion worth of Nvidia chip orders" (October 20, 2026)
- Tansun Technology — filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on an agreement to purchase 20,000 RTX PRO 5500 cards (October 13, 2026), reported by Reuters
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