ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent Place Over $35 Billion in Nvidia Chip Orders

What happened

Reuters reported on October 20, citing two people familiar with the matter, that ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent have ordered more than 3 million RTX PRO 5500 cards. Three sources said Nvidia has told customers and partners it cannot guarantee full delivery because demand from Chinese technology companies far exceeds planned production. The sources requested anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The RTX PRO 5500 is a workstation chip, designed for powerful professional computers rather than the large data-center clusters that use Nvidia's most advanced AI processors — but it is among the most powerful Nvidia chips still available to Chinese buyers. Nvidia's Blackwell-based B300 data-center chip is not allowed to be sold to Chinese buyers under US export controls, while exports of its Hopper-based H200 are reviewed case by case with licensing conditions. The three sources said Chinese companies mainly want the cards for AI inference — running trained models to generate responses, which needs less computing power than training.

US firms continue to be restricted by a combination of outdated US export controls, which cover gaming products released nearly a half a decade ago, and China's own limit on US imports.

— Nvidia spokesperson (via Reuters)

Key facts

1. Order scale: The three giants ordered more than 3 million cards at about $11,400 each, worth over $35 billion; total orders from customers in China have exceeded 6 million — not previously reported.
2. Supply gap: One source said Nvidia told partners they might receive only 5%–10% of requested quantities; another said the company could produce no more than 3 million RTX PRO 5500 cards globally in 2027.
3. Delivery timeline: Nvidia told customers to expect early samples in December, with commercial deliveries beginning in the first quarter of 2027; from 2027 much of its TSMC capacity will go to the next-generation Rubin platform.
4. Previous generation: Last year's compliant RTX 6000D has been discontinued and its market price in China has doubled; major firms showed little interest last year over price and capability, but sustained curbs and scarce compute have made the RTX PRO 5500 a more attractive substitute.
5. Follow-on buying: Shenzhen-listed Tianyang Technology said in an October 13 filing it had agreed to buy 20,000 RTX PRO 5500 cards from an unidentified counterparty, cautioning that supply shortages and overseas technology controls could delay deliveries or reduce volumes.
6. Official responses: ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent, the US Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, and China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment.