China is moving more forcefully to reduce its dependence on Nvidia AI chips, telling some of the country’s largest technology companies to halt work around a China-specific product from the US chipmaker.
The order targets the RTX Pro 6000D, a chip Nvidia designed for the Chinese market. It also signals a broader shift: Beijing wants domestic AI processors to carry more of the load as the country tries to strengthen its semiconductor industry and compete with the US.
What China Told Tech Companies To Stop
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) told companies including ByteDance and Alibaba this week to end their testing and orders of the RTX Pro 6000D, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.
Several companies had already shown interest in buying tens of thousands of the chips. They had also begun testing and verification work with Nvidia’s server suppliers, the people said.
After the CAC order arrived, those companies told suppliers to stop the work. That makes the instruction more than a symbolic warning. It interrupts procurement planning and technical validation that had already started.
The RTX Pro 6000D was Nvidia’s tailor-made product for China. Nvidia introduced it in July during Jensen Huang’s visit to Beijing, at the same time the company said Washington was easing its previous ban on the H20 chip.
Why The RTX Pro 6000D Matters
The ban is notable because it goes further than earlier guidance aimed at the H20, Nvidia’s other China-only AI chip. The H20 had been widely used for AI, and Chinese regulators had already warned tech companies against buying it.
According to the Financial Times reporting cited in the source article, regulators including the CAC asked companies to justify why they had purchased H20 chips instead of domestic products.
The RTX Pro 6000D carried additional importance because it was the last product Nvidia was allowed to sell in China in significant volumes. Nvidia has said the chip could be used in automated manufacturing.
That position made the RTX Pro 6000D a remaining bridge between Chinese demand and Nvidia’s China business. The CAC order now narrows that path for Nvidia and pushes Chinese buyers toward local alternatives.
Beijing’s Domestic Chip Push
Beijing is putting pressure on Chinese technology companies to support the country’s homegrown semiconductor industry. The goal is to reduce reliance on Nvidia while strengthening China’s ability to compete in the AI race against the US.
Regulators have recently summoned domestic chipmakers such as Huawei and Cambricon, along with Alibaba and Baidu, which also make their own semiconductors. They were asked to report how their products compare with Nvidia’s China chips, according to one person with knowledge of the matter.
Those regulators concluded that China’s AI processors had reached a level comparable to or exceeding the Nvidia products permitted under export controls, the person added.
That conclusion appears central to the decision. If regulators believe domestic products can meet the need, then continued Nvidia buying becomes harder to justify inside China’s policy framework.
“The message is now loud and clear,” said an executive at one of the tech companies. “Earlier, people had hopes of renewed Nvidia supply if the geopolitical situation improves. Now it’s all hands on deck to build the domestic system.”
The Financial Times reported last month that China’s chipmakers were seeking to triple the country’s total output of AI processors next year. That reported production goal fits the same direction as the CAC order: more domestic supply, less dependence on Nvidia.
“The top-level consensus now is there’s going to be enough domestic supply to meet demand without having to buy Nvidia chips,” said an industry insider.
How Export Controls Shaped Nvidia’s China Strategy
Nvidia began producing chips tailored for China after former US President Joe Biden barred the company from exporting its most powerful products to China. That move was aimed at slowing Beijing’s progress on AI.
The result was a narrower product line designed around what Nvidia could still sell in the Chinese market. The H20 and RTX Pro 6000D were part of that strategy.
But China’s latest move shows that export-compliant products are not automatically welcome. Even when a chip is legally available for sale, Chinese regulators can still steer buyers away from it if they want domestic alternatives to replace foreign supply.
For Nvidia, that creates a difficult position. Its products were adjusted to fit export restrictions, but the Chinese market is now being shaped by domestic industrial policy as well.
Nvidia’s Response And The Bigger Stakes
Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, told reporters in London on Wednesday that he expected to discuss the chipmaker’s ability to do business in China with Donald Trump that evening during the US president’s state visit to the UK.
“We can only be in service of a market if the country wants us to be,” he said. “I’m disappointed with what I see. But they have larger agendas to work out, between China and the US, and I’m understanding of that. We are patient about it.”
The comment captures the bind Nvidia faces. The company can design products for China, but it cannot control whether Chinese regulators want local companies to buy them.
Alibaba, ByteDance, the CAC, and Nvidia did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The immediate effect is clear: major Chinese tech companies have been told to stop testing and ordering the RTX Pro 6000D. The larger implication is that China’s AI chip market is being redirected toward domestic processors, with Nvidia increasingly caught between US export limits and Beijing’s semiconductor independence drive.