ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent have ordered more than 3 million NVIDIA RTX PRO 5500 cards, worth more than $35 billion at list price, Reuters reported on October 20, 2026, citing sources familiar with the matter. The RTX PRO 5500 is a workstation GPU that complies with U.S. export restrictions, and the three Chinese companies want to use it mainly for artificial intelligence (AI) inference. The problem is that NVIDIA doesn’t have the capacity to fill those orders: some customers have been told they might receive only 5% to 10% of what they requested.
China’s RTX PRO 5500 orders in 20 seconds
- More than 3 million cards at about $11,400 each, according to Reuters.
- Total Chinese orders would exceed 6 million units.
- NVIDIA expects to manufacture at most about 3 million units worldwide in 2027.
- Commercial shipments would begin in the first quarter of 2027.
The figures haven’t been confirmed by the companies involved. ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent, and the U.S. Department of Commerce declined to comment, and NVIDIA didn’t detail the orders. The report has been picked up by outlets such as Tom’s Hardware, TweakTown, Benzinga, and DigitalToday, which agree on the main figures though not always on the attribution: the South Korean outlet traces it to a Bloomberg report.
A Workstation Card Turned AI Chip
The RTX PRO 5500 is based on the Blackwell architecture and, according to data published in September, has 21,760 CUDA cores and 84 GB of GDDR7 memory. It isn’t a data-center accelerator like the B300, but it’s among the most powerful NVIDIA products that can still be sold in China. The B300 is banned for Chinese buyers, and the H200 is only exported under case-by-case licenses — on top of the limits the Chinese government itself has placed on H200s.
That’s why China’s big tech companies have turned to a card originally designed for design, simulation, and professional workstations. For inference — that is, running already-trained models — a GPU with plenty of memory can be enough, even without the HBM memory or interconnects of high-end accelerators. The various outlets agree that this is precisely the intended use.
The average price cited, about $11,400 per card, lines up with the global figures: 3 million units at that price works out to about $34.2 billion, and the order slightly exceeds that amount. According to reports, the previous card for the Chinese market, the RTX 6000D, has been discontinued, and its price in China has doubled — another sign of the shortage of computing capacity in the country. Shenzhen-listed Tansun Technology announced on October 13, 2026 that it had bought 20,000 RTX PRO 5500 cards from an unidentified supplier, warning of possible delays or volume cuts.
NVIDIA Can’t Fill What It’s Being Asked For
The most striking figure is the gap between supply and demand. Orders from Chinese customers would exceed 6 million units, while NVIDIA has reportedly told its partners it won’t be able to manufacture more than about 3 million RTX PRO 5500 cards worldwide in 2027 and can’t guarantee it will meet the orders. Some buyers might receive only 5% to 10% of the volume requested. The first samples would arrive in early December, with commercial shipments in the first quarter of 2027.
Behind this is the company’s own priorities. According to reports, starting in 2027 NVIDIA wants to devote much of the capacity it has reserved at TSMC to Rubin, its next data-center platform. Workstation cards would take a back seat, and allocation would favor large buyers, risking leaving smaller companies out.
An NVIDIA spokesperson, quoted in the reports, said Chinese makers of workstation chips have seen “unprecedented” growth since 2022 and that U.S. companies face “outdated” export controls, on top of China’s own restrictions on U.S. products. Jensen Huang, the company’s CEO, has repeated in recent months that these rules have left its share of China’s data-center AI chip market at virtually zero. Meanwhile, Beijing keeps pushing its companies toward local suppliers such as Huawei, alongside other moves like stockpiling ASML DUV equipment to make its own chips.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many RTX PRO 5500 cards have ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent ordered?
More than 3 million units, worth more than $35 billion at list price, according to Reuters. The companies haven’t confirmed this.
Why is China buying a workstation GPU?
Because the RTX PRO 5500 complies with U.S. export restrictions, while the B300 is banned and the H200 requires case-by-case licenses. The companies want to use it mainly for AI inference.
Will NVIDIA be able to fill all the orders?
No. NVIDIA expects to manufacture about 3 million units in 2027 against more than 6 million ordered from China, and some customers might receive only 5% to 10% of what they requested.
When will the RTX PRO 5500 cards be delivered?
According to reports, samples would arrive in early December 2026, with commercial shipments in the first quarter of 2027.
Sources:
- Reuters: ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent place over $35 billion worth of Nvidia chip orders
- Tom’s Hardware: China’s tech giants drop $35 billion on export-compliant Nvidia RTX Pro 5500 orders
- TweakTown: ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent order NVIDIA RTX PRO 5500 chips worth over $35 billion
- BigGo Finance: ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent place $35 billion order for Nvidia RTX PRO 5500 chips
- DigitalToday: China’s three big tech firms order more than 3 million Nvidia chips
- Guru3D: NVIDIA RTX PRO 5500 Blackwell, 84 GB GDDR7, and 21,760 CUDA cores
