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ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent have placed orders for more than $35 billion worth of Nvidia graphics cards as China’s biggest technology companies race to secure computing power for artificial intelligence.
The three companies have ordered more than three million of Nvidia’s new RTX PRO 5500 cards, according to people familiar with the matter.
At around $11,400 per card, the orders have a combined sticker value exceeding $35 billion.
The scale of the orders does not mean Nvidia has secured $35 billion in sales. The company has told customers and partners that it cannot guarantee it will be able to fulfil the requested quantities because Chinese demand is running far ahead of expected supply.
One person familiar with the discussions said partners had been told they might receive only 5% to 10% of the quantities requested.
Total Chinese orders for the RTX PRO 5500 have exceeded six million cards, according to people familiar with the matter.
Nvidia has indicated that global production of the cards could reach no more than three million unitsfsemi during 2027.
The imbalance illustrates the intensity of competition for AI computing capacity in China as technology companies expand their artificial intelligence services.
The RTX PRO 5500 is a workstation graphics card rather than one of Nvidia’s highest-end data-centre processors used to train the most advanced AI models.
However, US restrictions on exports of advanced AI chips to China have made products that remain available to Chinese customers increasingly important.
Nvidia’s Blackwell-based B300 data-centre processor is subject to US export restrictions, while access to other advanced processors is constrained by licensing requirements.
ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent are expected to use the RTX PRO 5500 cards primarily for AI inference, according to people familiar with their plans.
Inference is the process through which trained AI models generate responses and perform tasks for users. As companies deploy AI products to larger numbers of customers, the computing infrastructure required for inference can become substantial.
That makes access to chips an increasingly important strategic consideration for China’s largest technology groups.
Chinese companies have also increased their use of domestic semiconductor suppliers as US restrictions have tightened and Beijing has encouraged greater reliance on locally produced technology.
Huawei has emerged as an important domestic supplier of AI processors.
Chinese chipmakers, however, continue to face constraints of their own, including restrictions affecting access to advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
For Nvidia, the surge in orders demonstrates that substantial Chinese demand for its technology remains where products can legally be supplied.
Chief executive Jensen Huang has repeatedly argued that US export restrictions have damaged Nvidia’s position in the Chinese AI market while creating opportunities for domestic competitors.
The RTX PRO 5500 orders show the scale of demand that can emerge when an Nvidia product remains accessible to Chinese customers.
Supply is now the immediate constraint.
Nvidia has told customers to expect early samples of the new card in December, with commercial deliveries expected to begin during the first quarter of 2027.
The company must balance demand for the RTX PRO 5500 against enormous global demand for the processors powering AI development elsewhere.
For ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent, the issue is equally strategic.
Securing sufficient computing capacity will influence how quickly they can deploy AI models and services to millions of users while competing with both domestic rivals and global technology companies.
The more than $35 billion sticker value attached to their orders demonstrates how valuable access to AI computing power has become.
But with requested volumes far exceeding expected supply, the more important measure may ultimately be how many chips the companies actually receive.
The race for leadership in artificial intelligence is increasingly also a race to secure the physical infrastructure required to run it.