Chinese tech giants place more than $35 billion order for Nvidia s RTX PRO 5500, but full delivery is uncertain

Big orders, limited supply: a scramble for permitted Nvidia chips

Beijing. Several leading Chinese technology groups including ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent have placed orders for more than three million units of Nvidias newly launched RTX PRO 5500 graphics board, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to Reuters. The total value of those orders exceeds $35 billion. The rush reflects Chinese companies efforts to secure high-performance processors that still meet current U.S. export restrictions.

Insiders caution that Nvidia cannot guarantee those orders will be filled. Company messages to partners have reportedly indicated that customers might receive only five to ten percent of the quantities they requested. Two sources said the shortfall stems both from the sheer spike in demand from Chinese buyers and from Nvidias internal production priorities.

The RTX PRO 5500 is a workstation-class GPU rather than a datacenter accelerator. Still, it ranks among the most capable Nvidia chips currently available for sale into China under U.S. export controls. That makes it especially sought after by Chinese technology firms that want strong onpremise and workstation performance without running afoul of restrictions on the most powerful datacenter accelerators.

Priorities, production and the longer-term picture

Those production priorities are likely to shift further over the next few years. Nvidia is expected to allocate a large share of its manufacturing capacity at contract foundry TSMC to Rubin, Nvidias nextgeneration platform for major datacenters, beginning in 2027. That move would redirect capacity away from products such as the RTX PRO 5500 toward chips designed for hyperscale AI workloads.

The squeeze highlights several trends at once: the intense appetite for AIcapable hardware in China, the constraints that U.S. export policy places on what can be sold to Chinese customers, and the tough allocation decisions Nvidia faces as it balances enterprise/datacenter demand with customer requests from regions subject to restrictions. For Chinese cloud and tech companies, limited shipments of permitted GPUs may slow deployment plans or force them to prioritize particular projects and teams.

For investors and industry watchers, the episode underscores how geopolitical controls and product road maps can quickly shape supply and demand dynamics in the semiconductor market. Short term, Chinese firms face the prospect of receiving only a fraction of ordered boards; longer term, Nvidias shift of wafer capacity to Rubin and other datacenter platforms will further sharpen competition for remaining supply.

The story is still developing. Nvidia, TSMC and the buyers named have not confirmed shipment schedules beyond the information provided to partners and reported by Reuters. Observers will be watching production allocations, exportcontrol developments and whether Nvidia can ramp capacity or adjust priorities to meet the extraordinary demand from China.