China’s Cyberspace Administration has reportedly barred major tech companies from purchasing Nvidia’s AI chips, according to the Financial Times.
Nvidia shares slipped about 1% in premarket trading on Wednesday after the news.
The regulator told firms including ByteDance and Alibaba to halt testing and orders of the RTX Pro 6000D, a custom-designed chip Nvidia created for the Chinese market, sources told the paper.
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Neither Nvidia nor the Chinese companies immediately commented on the report.
Several firms had planned to order tens of thousands of the chips and had already begun testing them with Nvidia’s server suppliers. However, following the directive from Beijing, those companies have instructed their suppliers to stop the work.
China Pushes for Homegrown AI Chips Over Nvidia
The latest ban goes further than earlier rules that only targeted Nvidia’s H20 chip made for China, the Financial Times reported. Regulators now say Chinese chips perform as well as, or even better than, Nvidia’s versions allowed under U.S. export controls.
China is urging its big tech companies to rely on local chipmakers instead of Nvidia, aiming to grow its domestic semiconductor industry and compete with the U.S. in the global AI race.
In recent weeks, regulators called in Chinese chipmakers such as Huawei and Cambricon, along with Alibaba and Baidu, to compare their processors with Nvidia’s. Officials concluded that China’s AI chips have reached competitive performance levels.
China’s ban on Nvidia AI chips could ripple into the crypto market, as advanced GPUs are key for blockchain research, mining, and AI-driven trading. By pushing tech giants toward local chipmakers, Beijing may accelerate demand for domestic hardware in both AI and crypto sectors.
Nvidia introduced the RTX Pro 6000D in July during CEO Jensen Huang’s trip to China, at the same time the company said U.S. authorities were slightly easing restrictions on the H20 chip.
The Financial Times added that the RTX Pro 6000D, a chip Nvidia said could support automated manufacturing, was the last product the company was permitted to sell in large quantities in China.
On Monday, reports said Nvidia’s RTX6000D chip for China has faced weak demand. Some major Chinese tech firms decided not to order it after testing showed its performance was lower than the RTX5090, a more advanced chip banned by the U.S. but still available through grey market channels at less than half the RTX6000D’s price of about 50,000 yuan ($7,000).
Nvidia regained approval to sell the H20 chip in July, though shipments have not yet started. The company recently said it has obtained licenses to supply the H20 to several top Chinese customers but added that some geopolitical issues between Washington and Beijing still need to be resolved.
