China Weighs Nvidia Chip Buys for Alibaba, ByteDance

China may allow selected companies, including ByteDance and Alibaba, to buy Nvidia’s newly released RTX Pro 5500, after the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology asked some firms about planned order volumes and intended uses. Officials reportedly told some companies purchases would be approved, but Beijing has not publicly confirmed a decision, and Reuters said it could not independently verify the report. The RTX Pro 5500 is designed for high-end professional computers and has less fast memory and fewer high-speed connections than Nvidia’s leading data-center chips, though some Chinese buyers reportedly may use it in servers. ByteDance is reportedly considering an order of about one million chips, but that figure is provisional, and the potential sales will depend on Chinese approval and U.S. export rules. Any clearance could offer Nvidia a limited route back to Chinese customers as both governments continue to restrict access to advanced computing technology.