ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent have placed massive orders for over three million Nvidia RTX PRO 5500 graphics cards, creating a projected supply crunch that could leave global customers receiving only a fraction of their requested hardware.
The orders, carrying a combined sticker price exceeding $35 billion, reflect an intense scramble for computing power among Chinese technology giants navigating stringent trade barriers. Each workstation card is priced at approximately $11,400, according to industry disclosures shared in a report by Reuters exclusively on October 20, 2026.
Workstation Chips Fill the AI Inference Gap Under US Export Controls
Washington’s regulatory framework has effectively blocked Chinese access to top-tier hardware, making advanced data-center processors like Nvidia’s Blackwell-based B300 entirely unavailable through official channels, while Bloomberg, citing an account from The Information featuring people familiar with the matter, reports that China has signaled it may allow ByteDance and Alibaba to buy Nvidia’s new RTX Pro 5500 chips. Meanwhile, shipments of Hopper-based H200 accelerators remain bogged down by complex, case-by-case licensing reviews.
Facing these limitations, Chinese developers have turned their attention to the RTX PRO 5500. While designed primarily for high-end professional workstations rather than massive data-center training clusters, the hardware features Blackwell-derived processors equipped with 21,760 CUDA cores and 84 gigabytes of GDDR7 memory with ECC support. Industry sources note that these specifications make the cards a viable alternative for AI inference tasks—running already-trained models to generate chatbot responses—which demand significantly less raw computing horsepower than initial model training.
Global Production Capacity Collides With Surging Chinese Demand
The sheer scale of the buying spree has created a severe supply imbalance. Total orders originating from Chinese customers have surpassed six million units, far outstripping Nvidia’s planned global production capacity of approximately three million units for the entire upcoming year.
Consequently, the chipmaker has warned partners and clients that fulfillment rates could plummet. Buyers may ultimately receive as little as 5% to 10% of their requested quantities, meaning the headline financial figures represent intended purchases rather than guaranteed deliveries.
| Metric | Volume or Value |
|---|---|
| Combined Order Value | Exceeding $35 billion |
| Target Purchase Volume | Over 3 million units (total Chinese customer demand past 6 million) |
| Unit Price | Approximately $11,400 per card |
| Projected Global Output | Around 3 million units in 2027 |
| Expected Fulfillment Rate | 5% to 10% for affected partners |
Production Transitions and Domestic Market Shifts Shape Future Availability
The current scramble contrasts with earlier alternative products. Last year, Nvidia introduced the RTX 6000D workstation card tailored for the region. Those hopes dissolved as trade controls persisted, making the newer model more appealing.
Manufacturing constraints are expected to tighten further as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. pivots much of its capacity toward Nvidia’s upcoming Rubin platform for large-scale data centers heading into 2027. Amid these pressures, local players like Tansun Technology have also moved to secure hardware—such as a 20,000-card order—while publicly acknowledging the persistent risks of supply delays.
Initial product samples are slated to reach clients in December, with full commercial deliveries scheduled to begin during the first quarter of 2027.