The Financial Times (FT) reported on the 17th (local time) that Chinese authorities ordered domestic corporations to stop purchasing Nvidia's artificial intelligence (AI) chips and cancel existing orders.
According to the report, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) notified domestic corporations, including ByteDance and Alibaba, this week to halt testing and orders for the new, China-only, lower-spec chip for inference tasks, the "RTX 6000D."
Some corporations had already said they would order tens of thousands of RTX 6000D units and had begun testing and verification work on the chip with Nvidia server suppliers, but after the CAC's directive, they reportedly stopped all related work.
The RTX Pro 6000D is an AI chip that Nvidia developed for the Chinese market after the Donald Trump U.S. administration restricted exports of the China-bound AI chip "H20." FT reported that the latest ban goes beyond the existing sanctions on Nvidia's other AI chip, the "H20."
Earlier, Chinese authorities urged restrictions last month on H20 purchases by domestic corporations. In particular, they strongly opposed state-owned corporations or private corporations using the H20 in government or national security-related work. The move is seen as pressure on domestic corporations to reduce dependence on Nvidia, secure an independent chip supply chain, and build competitiveness in the AI race with the United States.
An executive at a Chinese corporation said, "The message is clear," adding, "Before, we had hoped Nvidia's supply would resume if the geopolitical situation improved, but now everyone must focus on building the domestic (semiconductor industry) system."
In addition, Reuters reported that the RTX 6000D is being shunned by Chinese clients, saying that in sample tests the chip performed worse than the RTX 5090. Because of this, Chinese corporations are more interested in the H20, a high-performance chip capable of AI training, than in the RTX 6000D, Reuters added.
The H20 was banned from export in April this year due to tightened export controls by the Donald Trump administration. In July, resumption of exports was allowed during U.S.-China trade talks, but actual shipments have not taken place.