China Weighs Millions More Nvidia Chips for AI Firms as US Curbs Threaten Trade Truce
Updated
Updated · Ars Technica · Sep 28
China Weighs Millions More Nvidia Chips for AI Firms as US Curbs Threaten Trade Truce
3 articles · Updated · Ars Technica · Sep 28
Summary
China is considering letting some of its biggest AI companies import potentially millions more Nvidia RTX Pro 5500 chips over the next year, despite broader US restrictions on advanced semiconductors.
MIIT has asked Alibaba and ByteDance to submit purchase and usage plans for the chips, which are sold as gaming processors but could be installed in servers to run high-demand AI models.
The move surfaced after the Trump-Xi summit left export controls untouched and extended a fragile trade truce by only two months, with analysts warning new US curbs could still trigger Chinese retaliation on rare earths.
Nvidia stands to benefit sharply, but the development also intensifies criticism that CEO Jensen Huang's influence on Trump could tilt US AI policy toward commercial gains over security and technology-risk concerns.