Beijing said to weigh letting Alibaba and ByteDance buy new Nvidia chips

China may allow ByteDance and Alibaba to buy Nvidia’s RTX PRO 5500 chips, according to a report by The Information relayed by Bloomberg^1,8. The Hindu reported that the two companies would be allowed by China’s government to buy the new chips⁷. Other accounts described Beijing as weighing the move or signalling approval rather than granting it outright^4,6.

The part in question is not at the top of the range. The RTX PRO 5500 sits in a different category from Nvidia’s most advanced AI processors⁴. The report landed on a Sunday, ahead of Monday’s US session^10,11. Quartz reported that the possible approval covers that part specifically rather than a broader class of accelerators¹.

Why it matters to investors

Nvidia’s market share in China has effectively fallen to zero, chief executive Jensen Huang has said, as the company has been hurt by US export controls⁵. One account traced the fall in its share of the Chinese AI chip market from about 95 per cent⁶. Restoring even part of that would be material.

An Nvidia spokesperson said the company’s business in China remains constrained by both US export controls and by Beijing’s own posture³, which is why a decision from Beijing alone does not settle the question. Huang has encouraged the US administration to allow the company’s chips to be sold in China⁷, and has said the company can only be in service of a market if the country wants it to be¹⁰. Nvidia remains caught between US export controls on one side and China’s own restrictions on the other⁴.

What to watch

US firms continue to be restricted by what one report called outdated export controls, which cover gaming products released nearly half a decade ago^1,2. Whether Washington moves to tighten or clarify those rules in response to Beijing’s signal is the first thing to track.

The timing is suggestive. The signal follows the summit between Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump, where export controls were absent from the official readouts on both sides⁶. Investors will be watching for confirmation from Beijing, a response from Washington, and how much revenue a mid-tier part can actually recover for Nvidia^3,5,8. Market summaries framed the story as a potential reopening of Nvidia’s AI market and asked how the shares would react when trading resumed^10,11.