Nvidia RTX6000D Chip Struggles to Gain Traction in China

Nvidia’s new RTX6000D, a chip designed for the Chinese market, has seen limited interest since its release. Despite being tailored for artificial intelligence inference tasks, several major tech firms have opted not to place orders, according to sources familiar with procurement discussions.

The RTX6000D is priced at about 50,000 yuan ($7,000). However, testing results suggest it lags behind the RTX5090, a high-performance chip banned in China but still accessible on the grey market for less than half the price. This performance gap, coupled with its high cost, has discouraged companies from adopting the new chip.

Tech Giants Wait for Alternatives

Chinese technology leaders, including Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance, are holding back on major purchases as they wait for clarity on Nvidia’s H20 chip shipments. Although the US granted approval for H20 sales in July, deliveries have not yet resumed.

At the same time, these companies are watching closely to see whether Nvidia’s B30A, a more powerful alternative, will gain approval from US authorities. Both the H20 and B30A are scaled-down versions of Nvidia’s global models, developed to comply with export restrictions aimed at curbing China’s AI progress while safeguarding US leadership in the sector.

Market Expectations and Reality

Industry analysts had predicted strong demand for the RTX6000D. JPMorgan projected around 1.5 million units would be produced in the second half of this year, while Morgan Stanley forecast 2 million units in Nvidia’s pipeline.

Despite these optimistic forecasts, the reality has been tepid. Nvidia only began shipping the RTX6000D this week, and demand has fallen short of expectations.

In response, the company stated, “the market is competitive – we offer the best products we can.” Meanwhile, Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance declined to comment or did not respond to queries.

with inputs from Reuters