Nvidia eyes massive Chinese sales of RTX Pro 5500 chips
As Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gains influence over President Donald Trump, China is considering relaxing import controls to allow domestic tech giants to purchase millions of Nvidia chips.
China is considering easing its restrictions to let major domestic technology firms import millions of Nvidia chips over the coming year. The country's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has requested that Alibaba and ByteDance submit procurement plans for Nvidia's RTX Pro 5500 chips. Although designed for gaming, these processors are expected to be deployed in servers to power demanding Chinese artificial intelligence models. If Beijing approves the transactions, ByteDance alone intends to order 1 million units, with buyers planning to install eight RTX Pro 5500s in each server. Nvidia is reportedly preparing to ship the initial orders this December.
This potential opening follows a period of regulatory friction and shifting political dynamics in Washington. President Donald Trump initially tightened export controls by blocking shipments of Nvidia's H200 chips to China. However, after discussions with Huang, Trump reversed course and lifted those specific restrictions. Despite the policy shift, delayed Chinese approvals meant H200 sales accounted for less than 1 percent of Nvidia's data center revenue in its most recent quarter. Furthermore, Nvidia recorded a $400 million write-down in the first half of 2026 due to stockpiles of unsold H200 chips that American firms bypassed in favor of newer hardware.
For AI practitioners, these developments highlight how hardware supply chains remain deeply entangled with geopolitical lobbying. While national security experts warn about the risks of exporting high-performance silicon, Nvidia argues that the RTX Pro 5500 is an outdated product released "nearly a half a decade ago" that does not threaten American technological leadership. If the sales proceed, Chinese developers will gain a vital hardware lifeline to scale their training and inference workloads. Meanwhile, US practitioners may see Nvidia focus heavily on fulfilling these massive overseas orders, potentially shifting the global distribution of mid-tier hardware.
This is our own summary of reporting by Ars Technica AI
