TLDRs;
- Nvidia’s RTX6000D chip struggles with weak demand in China as buyers balk at high costs.
- Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance avoid immediate purchases, awaiting clarity on Nvidia’s H20 shipments.
- Grey-market RTX5090 cards, though banned, offer better performance at less than half the price.
- Chinese firms eye potential U.S. approval of Nvidia’s upcoming B30A chip before committing.
Nvidia’s China-specific AI processor, the RTX6000D, is facing disappointing reception as some of the country’s largest technology companies have delayed purchases.
Sources close to procurement discussions revealed that Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance are not rushing to secure the new chip, citing concerns over price-to-performance ratios.
Priced at roughly 50,000 yuan (US$7,000), the RTX6000D is marketed for AI inference tasks. However, its benchmark performance reportedly falls short of the RTX5090, a card banned in China but easily available on the grey market at less than half the cost. This price disparity, paired with better performance from the restricted model, has left Chinese firms questioning the value of Nvidia’s sanctioned alternative.
The waiting game for H20 shipments
Instead of immediately investing in the RTX6000D, China’s tech titans are adopting a wait-and-see strategy. Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance are holding out for Nvidia’s H20 chip, which recently regained U.S. approval for sale in China but has yet to be shipped.
The H20 is seen as a more viable option for large-scale AI training and deployment, and its pending arrival has created hesitation among potential buyers.
Without clarity on shipment timelines, however, firms remain in limbo, reluctant to pay premium prices for underwhelming performance when alternatives may soon become available.
Grey-market alternatives undermine Nvidia strategy
The presence of banned but accessible Nvidia hardware on the grey market further complicates adoption of the RTX6000D. Buyers can secure the RTX5090 at less than half the cost of the China-only model, while enjoying stronger computational power.
This dynamic undermines Nvidia’s strategy of creating China-specific products that comply with U.S. export restrictions.
While the RTX6000D allows Nvidia to technically maintain a legal foothold in the Chinese AI market, its steep pricing compared to banned yet obtainable hardware has left local firms unconvinced.
Eyes on future chips
Looking beyond the H20, Chinese companies are also monitoring the status of Nvidia’s B30A chip, a more powerful design that has not yet received U.S. clearance for Chinese sales.
Approval could reshape procurement strategies across the sector, giving firms access to higher-end AI accelerators that better match their ambitions in generative AI and large-language models.
At the same time, Nvidia is preparing for the global release of its next-generation Rubin CPX chip by 2026. Unlike the RTX6000D, the Rubin CPX is being developed for specialized workloads such as video generation and large-scale software creation. Nvidia claims the chip could deliver massive efficiency gains, a proposition that could help it strengthen global market dominance while China remains bound by export restrictions.
Future Outlook
For now, Nvidia’s challenge in China highlights the tension between geopolitics, performance demands, and pricing realities.
With Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance holding back orders, the RTX6000D’s commercial prospects remain uncertain.
Much depends on how quickly the H20 ships, whether the B30A receives approval, and how China’s grey market continues to supply alternatives.
