Chinese buyers expect to receive only about 1% of $70bn in Nvidia RTX Pro 5500 orders, Bloomberg reports
Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance and others reportedly ordered about 6 million chips over four months; Nvidia blamed export controls and production conflicts, and buyers had expected about 700,000 by the end of 2027.
Why it matters
The RTX Pro 5500 falls below US export thresholds yet ranks among the best AI chips Chinese firms can buy, so the allocation shows how scarce compute remains in China. Nvidia is prioritising higher-margin parts for customers such as OpenAI and Anthropic as it and TSMC shift capacity to next-generation Rubin products. It comes days after reports that Nvidia asked cloud clients to cut China exposure. Watch whether Huawei and other domestic suppliers can fill the gap.
Key facts
- About 6 million RTX Pro 5500 chips ordered
- Orders valued at about $70 billion
- Buyers expect about 1% within four months
- More than $11,000 per chip
- Buyers had expected about 700,000 by end of 2027