The Cyberspace Administration of China has banned local technology companies from purchasing Nvidia’s latest AI chips. This decision imposes a new restriction on technology transfer in the AI field, including chips specifically developed for the region.
China bans sales of Nvidia chips
China’s internet regulator has ordered tech giants such as ByteDance and Alibaba to cancel orders for Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000D chips and halt testing.
Following this order, the companies have instructed their suppliers to halt all GPU-related activities. This follows a previous order to halt orders for the Nvidia H20 chip.
Chinese companies had planned to order tens of thousands of units of this new AI chip, based on the Blackwell architecture. However, this changed when interest in the chip fell short of expectations and some companies abandoned their orders. Instead, they are opting to wait for the more powerful Nvidia B30A, which is expected to be approved for export by US authorities.
Chinese regulators have concluded that domestically produced chips now perform on par with or better than Nvidia’s domestically sold counterparts. This assessment has prompted domestic manufacturers like Huawei and Baidu to submit reports on how their products compare to Nvidia’s. This is seen as part of China’s efforts to strengthen its own technology ecosystem.
