Chinese tech companies bought more than 1 million Nvidia gaming and workstation GPUs in a single year, the Financial Times reported, according to Tom's Hardware. The FT article is behind a subscriber paywall; we could read only its headline. The FT-derived figures below come from Tom's Hardware's account.
What the report says
Tom's Hardware summarizes the FT's figures:
- The chips are "mostly" the RTX Pro 6000D, RTX Pro 5000 and RTX 5090, which comply with U.S. export controls.
- China is expected to make about 3.5 million AI chips at home this year, while demand "far exceeds" 5 million.
- The gaming and workstation cards are used for "simpler AI workloads," such as prefilling, and cannot match Huawei's Ascend 910C.
- Nvidia's CUDA software is a draw over Huawei's CANN alternative.
Reported RTX 5090 prices and availability
The RTX 5090 launched at a $1,999 MSRP. Tom's Hardware says the card can now be found at only three third-party resellers, for no less than $7,199, and has "all but disappeared from the market." That price is Tom's figure; we did not capture a US listing today.
Our Oct. 10 story recorded three Amazon.com RTX 5090 listings at $7,444.00 to $8,497.00, showing one or two left each.
Tom's Hardware calls the China purchases "significant pressure" on a market where enthusiast card prices had already climbed. Tom's Hardware gives no RTX 5090-specific purchase count and does not establish that the purchases caused a US shortage.
A second, unconfirmed report may also matter. As Tom's Hardware notes, Nvidia was recently reported to have halted RTX 5090 production. Nvidia had not confirmed it when we covered that report.
What it means if you are planning a build
- RTX 5080 16GB: our Oct. 10 story recorded on Amazon.com $1,639.99 and $1,699.99. Wccftech put its list price at $999, so it also sold above list. We did not recheck today.
- Waiting: Hardware Busters expected "thinner restocks and firmer prices" for the RTX 5090, per our report. That is its inference.
- Whole PCs: IDC said prices will stay "elevated", as in our Q3 PC shipments report.
This is our judgment, and we have not tested any of these cards: with an RTX 5090 at more than three times its MSRP, a build is easier to plan around cards you can actually buy at a price you can verify. Neither report gives a date for supply to change.
What we could not confirm
We could read only the FT headline, and Tom's Hardware carries no Nvidia statement on the purchases. We have no breakdown of how many of the 1 million cards were RTX 5090s. Prices and stock move quickly, so check a retailer before you decide.
