China's Tech Giants Order $35B+ in Nvidia Chips Despite Export Restrictions
ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent have collectively ordered over 3 million Nvidia RTX PRO 5500 GPUs — export-compliant chips used as a workaround to US restrictions on advanced AI processors — totaling over $35 billion.
What we know
An account on X reported that the three Chinese tech giants are using the export-compliant RTX PRO 5500 as a workaround since they cannot access Nvidia's more advanced AI chips. The order size — 3M+ GPUs at a collective $35B+ — underscores China's determination to build out AI infrastructure despite export controls. Another account on X included this in its top overnight news. The news comes as a Korean data center company (Elice) collapsed 32% on its IPO debut, suggesting diverging sentiment on data center infrastructure plays globally.
By the Global Eye 24 desk, with AI assistance. Updated as the story develops. Spot an error? Write to corrections@globaleye24.com.