KEY TAKEAWAYS
- China has reportedly banned its largest tech firms from buying Nvidia AI chips, adding pressure on the U.S. chipmaker’s sales in the country.
- The country’s internet regulator told firms including TikTok owner ByteDance and e-commerce giant Alibaba this week to end their testing and orders of the RTX Pro 6000D, Nvidia’s latest tailor-made chip, according to the Financial Times.
- Speaking in London, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he is “disappointed” about the reported ban.
China has reportedly banned its largest tech firms from buying Nvidia (NVDA) AI chips, adding pressure on the U.S. chipmaker’s sales in the country.
Shares of Nvidia, which entered Wednesday’s session up roughly a third this year, fell about 3% in recent trading following the news.
The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s internet regulator, told firms including TikTok owner ByteDance and e-commerce giant Alibaba (BABA) this week to end their testing and orders of the RTX Pro 6000D—the chip Nvidia introduced in July for the Chinese market, according to the Financial Times. Beijing had concluded that homegrown chips are now performing on par with the Nvidia chips allowed in China under export controls, the FT said, citing people familiar with the matter. ByteDance and Alibaba did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
The FT report said the companies that started testing and verification work on the chip with Nvidia’s server suppliers have since told their suppliers to stop the work. The new ban is stronger than prior guidance from regulators that focused on curbing use of the H20, an earlier version of Nvidia’s China-tailored AI chip, and comes after China recently accused Nvidia of antitrust violations.
Nvidia CEO Huang Says He’s ‘Disappointed’
Asked at a press conference in London about the reported ban, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he was “disappointed.” Huang is among U.S. tech executives accompanying President Donald Trump on a state visit to the U.K.
“We can only be in service of a market if a country wants us to be,” Huang said, according to a transcript provided to Investopedia by the company. “I’m disappointed with what I see but they have larger agendas to work out between China and the United States. And I’m patient about it. We’ll continue to be supportive of the Chinese [government] and Chinese companies as they wish.”
Nvidia faces U.S. export restrictions on sales of its most advanced chips to China and has tailor-made some of its semiconductors for the country’s market. In August, Trump ended H20 restrictions his administration had placed earlier earlier in the year in exchange for a 15% share of revenues.
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