Chinese technology giants ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent, among others, are set to receive only a limited number of Nvidia chips that they've ordered. Bloomberg is reporting that, according to unnamed sources, only "some tens of thousands, or roughly 1%" of RTX Pro 5500 workstation GPUs will be delivered over the next few months.
Demand for the RTX Pro 5500 has far outstripped Nvidia's planned production. According to earlier reports, Chinese firms were suggested to have spent $35 billion on orders for over 3 million of the GPUs, far beyond Nvidia's ability to produce them. This new report suggests that amount has risen to $70 billion, at a cost of $11,000 per unit.
Chinese demand for the RTX Pro 5500 is based on its performance and its unique status for shipping. The RTX Pro 5500 has the same CUDA cores as its flagship gaming GPU, the RTX 5090, but with a boosted 84GB GDDR7 memory count, so it's a good option for AI.
Unlike the RTX 5090, or other AI-focused workstation GPUs like the H200 and B300, there are no export limits, meaning it can be shipped to China without restrictions. China is in an arms race with the U.S. to produce better AI models, with GPUs like the RTX Pro 5500 being core to its success. Nvidia has reportedly halted RTX 5090 production to pivot towards its AI-focused enterprise base.
The report suggests that Chinese developers expect a first batch of several thousand RTX Pro 5500 GPUs to be delivered by the end of 2026. In total, 700,000 RTX Pro 5500s are expected to be delivered by the end of 2027 as Nvidia increases its production, although this could change.
Tom's Hardware has approached Nvidia for comment. In a statement to Bloomberg, an Nvidia spokesman declined to comment on shipment numbers, but did criticize U.S. export controls, stating that "outdated U.S. export controls, which cover gaming products released nearly half a decade ago" continue to restrict it, along with "China's own limits on U.S. imports."
