China has officially barred domestic technology firms from purchasing Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips, marking a sharp escalation in the ongoing tech standoff between Beijing and Washington.
The Cyberspace Administration of China has instructed companies including ByteDance and Alibaba to stop testing and procuring Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000D server, a chip the U.S. firm had specifically designed for the Chinese market. The move, first reported by the Financial Times, follows earlier measures by Beijing to encourage the use of homegrown alternatives.
The ban is seen as a significant setback for China’s AI ecosystem. Despite efforts by local players such as Huawei and Alibaba to develop their own chips, Nvidia dominates the global GPU market, and its hardware remains central to AI research and deployment worldwide. Losing access to its technology could slow China’s advancements in the sector.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, speaking in London, voiced disappointment at the development but took a conciliatory stance. “We can only be in service of a market if a country wants us to be,” he said. “I’m disappointed with what I see, but they have larger agendas to work out between China and the United States. And I’m patient about it.”
The U.S. had already tightened export restrictions earlier this year, requiring licences for sales of advanced AI chips to China. With Beijing’s latest ban, Nvidia finds itself under pressure from both governments. Huang acknowledged the uncertainty, saying the company has advised analysts not to factor China into financial forecasts, describing its China business as “a bit of a roller coaster.”
Nevertheless, Huang stressed that China remains a vital market, calling it “large” and “vibrant,” and highlighting Nvidia’s three-decade presence in the country. For now, though, the AI contest in China appears set to be driven more by domestic innovation than by U.S. technology.