As the United States strengthens export control measures on semiconductors to China, there are reports that the shipment of NVIDIA's latest graphics card, designed for the Chinese market, has been halted following the company's AI chip for China.
According to the industry on the 21st, stories have spread among China's tech community 'Chiphell' and the country's largest online community 'Baidu Tieba' that NVIDIA notified its partner graphics card manufacturers to suspend shipments of its GeForce RTX 5090D starting from the 18th. The RTX 5090D is a model that reduces the AI computational performance of NVIDIA's ultra-high-performance graphics processing unit (GPU) RTX 5090, released this year, by about 30%, tailored for the Chinese market in line with U.S. government semiconductor export regulations.
In China, where the supply of AI chips is not smooth, NVIDIA's high-performance graphics cards are often used in the development of AI models. As the RTX 5090, regarded as the best specification among existing PC graphics cards, is banned from sale in the Chinese market, it is reported that Chinese consumers are hoarding this model globally while also collecting the China-specific model RTX 5090D.
In this situation, the halt of the RTX 5090D model's shipments is analyzed as a proactive measure by NVIDIA, which is watching the U.S. government's actions closely. Earlier, on the 9th, the U.S. Department of Commerce included NVIDIA's AI chip H20 for exports to China in its new export permit category, raising export barriers. Meanwhile, the U.S. House Select Committee on China has begun investigating how NVIDIA's AI chips were delivered to the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek. Thus, it is interpreted that NVIDIA has proactively suspended the supply of RTX 5090D, the next highest-performing product sold in the Chinese market after H20.
An industry official said, "With NVIDIA's shipping halt notice, partners such as Asus, which manufacture graphics cards with RTX 5090D graphics chips, are identified to have entered the stage of production suspension," and noted, "Although an official sales ban has not been imposed, if this situation continues, there is a possibility that the sales of the RTX 5090D model will be permanently halted."
After the news of the shipment halt surfaced, the price of the already expensive RTX 5090D in the Chinese market surged by nearly 50%. Currently, the selling price of the RTX 5090D on the Chinese online shopping mall JD.com is between 40,000 to 60,000 yuan (approximately 7.78 million to 11.67 million won), soaring to 2.4 to 3.6 times NVIDIA's suggested retail price. Another industry official stated, "The products currently sold in the Chinese market are the stock held by distributors, and the price will be what they call it," and added, "Graphics cards are strictly controlled for shipment to sellers to avoid after-sales service burdens."
NVIDIA's market power in China is expected to weaken further. Due to the tightening of regulations from the U.S., the export of H20 to China has become virtually impossible, leading to an anticipated loss of $5.5 billion (approximately 7.8 trillion won) for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 (April to June). Although it is reported that not much inventory of the RTX 5090D model was initially supplied to China, many corporations in China using high-performance graphics cards as alternatives to NVIDIA's AI chips are now facing difficulties.
Some analysts suggest that since NVIDIA is focusing on the Chinese market, it may launch a GPU with even lower performance tailored for the Chinese market in the latest model. Jensen Huang, NVIDIA's Chief Executive Officer, visited the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade in Beijing on the 17th dressed in a suit instead of his trademark black leather jacket, stating, "The U.S. government's tightening of semiconductor export controls has already had a significant impact on NVIDIA's business" and added, "NVIDIA will continue to optimize its product system in line with regulatory requirements and will unwaveringly serve the Chinese market."