Nvidia Faces Supply Gap as Chinese GPU Orders Exceed $35 Billion

Nvidia faces a supply squeeze after ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent ordered more than 3 million RTX PRO 5500 cards with a potential value above $35 billion, even as deliveries remain uncertain.

The estimated value describes potential business, not cards already shipped or sales completed. The approximate price associated with the orders is $11,400 per card. The value above $35 billion is a separate estimate; the rounded count of more than 3 million cards does not, by itself, establish that total.

Demand extends beyond the three companies. Chinese customers have requested more than 6 million cards in all, while Nvidia has warned partners that it may be unable to meet their requests in full. Some partners might receive only 5% to 10% of the quantities they sought. The warning leaves a wide gap between requested volumes and the cards partners may receive.

The RTX PRO 5500 Blackwell is a workstation graphics card equipped with 84 GB of GDDR7 memory. It can be used for AI inference, in which a trained model generates responses. That use makes the card relevant to companies building AI services as U.S. export controls restrict Chinese access to more powerful data center chips.

Proposed exports of H200 chips to China face individual security reviews in the United States. Separately, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology previously signaled its intent to approve Nvidia chip purchases by ByteDance, Alibaba and other companies. No quantity approved under that possible decision had been disclosed.

Beijing had earlier urged major technology companies to reduce Nvidia purchases and increased scrutiny of foreign chips as it pursued domestic semiconductor development. The RTX PRO 5500 orders show the scale of interest in Nvidia hardware, but the order total does not establish how many cards will reach customers.

Tansun Technology Co., Ltd. disclosed an agreement Oct. 13 to buy 20,000 RTX PRO 5500 cards from an unnamed seller. Tansun said shortages and foreign technology controls could delay delivery or leave it with fewer than the 20,000 cards covered by the agreement.

For customers generally, Nvidia expects early samples in December 2026. Commercial deliveries are expected to begin in the first quarter of 2027.