Nvidia's China Sales Get Boost as Beijing Considers Greenlighting Tech Giants' Chip Buys
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is considering allowing tech giants like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and ByteDance Ltd. to buy Nvidia Corp.'s RTX Pro 5500, a high-end graphics processor.
The move comes as Nvidia's China sales have been squeezed by U.S. export limits and Chinese curbs tied to security and AI competition tensions. The U.S. recently lifted restrictions on some older chips sold in small amounts, but those tend to be earlier-generation models.
China's greenlight would allow the country's internet platforms to get quicker access to Nvidia's newest pro-grade GPU, even as most U.S.-cleared shipments into China remain older models and relatively small. The decision is still pending, with policy in the driver's seat for who gets cutting-edge chips and when.