China bars domestic firms from buying Nvidia’s AI chips, CEO Jensen Huang 'disappointed'

China’s internet regulator has barred the country’s largest technology companies from buying Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips, Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) ordered firms, including ByteDance and Alibaba, to halt testing and purchases of the RTX Pro 6000D, Nvidia’s chip designed specifically for China, according to the report.

Several Chinese tech companies had planned to order tens of thousands of the RTX Pro 6000D and had begun testing with server suppliers, but were told to suspend the work after receiving the CAC directive, the newspaper said.

The move, aimed at strengthening its domestic semiconductor sector and reducing reliance on American suppliers, goes beyond earlier restrictions targeting Nvidia’s H20, another China-only chip, and follows regulators’ assessment that domestic processors now rival or surpass Nvidia’s China-eligible models.

Beijing has been pressing local players, including Huawei, Cambricon, Alibaba and Baidu, to step up development of homegrown AI chips.

Nvidia began producing customised products for China after Washington barred exports of its most advanced AI chips in 2022.

In July, CEO Jensen Huang unveiled the RTX Pro 6000D in Beijing during a visit coinciding with US moves to ease restrictions on the H20.

Speaking in London on Wednesday, Huang said he expected to raise Nvidia’s China business with President Donald Trump during the US leader’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 we are patient about it.”

The ban comes after Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices last month agreed to hand over 15% of revenue from China AI chip sales to the US government under a revenue-sharing arrangement tied to export approvals.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had defended the resumption of sales, calling the H20 Nvidia’s “fourth-best chip” and arguing it was in America’s interest for Chinese firms to use US technology short of the most advanced versions.