China Bans Tech Firms From Buying Nvidia's AI Chips, Jensen Huang 'Disappointed'

Last Updated:September 17, 2025, 20:04 IST

China's internet regulator has reportedly banned the country's biggest technology companies from buying Nvidia's artificial intelligence chips, according to a report.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (Reuters/File)

China’s internet regulator has reportedly banned the country’s biggest technology companies from buying Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips in a step to boost its domestic industry and move away from American suppliers.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) told companies, including ByteDance and Alibaba, to end testing and orders of Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000D, the company’s newest AI chip tailored for the Chinese company, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing three people familiar with the matter.

Several companies had indicated they would order tens of thousands of the RTX Pro 6000D and had started testing and verification work with Nvidia’s server suppliers before telling them to stop the work after receiving the CAC order, as per FT. Nvidia’s shares fell more than 2% on Wednesday as reports of the ban surfaced.

The decision came after China accused Nvidia of violating the country’s anti-monopoly law after a preliminary probe into its business practices on Monday, amid trade talks with the United States in Madrid. China and the US have traded barbs over the past six months since US President Donald Trump’s tariff charge, with Beijing signalling more regulatory scrutiny on US firms.

Nvidia Reacts To Chinese Ban

Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, said he expected to discuss the chipmaker’s ability to do business in China with Trump during the US president’s visit to the United Kingdom.

“We can only be in service of a market if a country wants us to be," he said in a press conference in London. “I’m disappointed with what I see, but they have larger agendas to work out between China and the United States and I’m patient about it. We’ll continue to be supportive of the Chinese government and Chinese companies as they wish."

The fresh ban is stronger than the earlier guidance from regulators that focused on the H20, the previous version of Nvidia’s China-tailored AI chip, according to FT. Chinese regulators had concluded that its domestic chips had attained performance comparable to those of Nvidia’s models used in China.

Nvidia began manufacturing chips specifically for the Chinese market after former US President Joe Biden prohibited the export of its most advanced products to China, aiming to curb Beijing’s advancements in artificial intelligence. Trump had reversed the ban in July, in exchange for 15% of Nvidia’s Chinese revenues.

Chinese regulators have recently summoned domestic chipmakers such as Huawei and Cambricon to report how their products compare against Nvidia’s China chips, one of the people with knowledge of the matter told FT. They concluded that China’s AI processors had reached a level comparable to or exceeding that of the Nvidia products allowed under export controls.

Nvidia’s RTX6000D has seen only lukewarm demand, with some major tech firms opting not to place orders, according to a report by Reuters.

In early 2025, Nvidia became the first company globally to surpass a $4 trillion valuation. It has emerged as a key player in the AI boom, with its chips powering data centers worldwide.

News tech China Bans Tech Firms From Buying Nvidia's AI Chips, Jensen Huang 'Disappointed'

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