China’s internet regulator has told major tech firms to halt tests and cancel orders for Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000D chip. The Cyberspace Administration of China issued the notice this week, targeting a product Nvidia designed to comply with U.S. rules on advanced AI hardware bound for Beijing.
Before the order, several companies had said they planned to buy tens of thousands of the RTX Pro 6000D, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times. The instruction follows guidance given over the summer that pushed firms to avoid Nvidia’s H20, and it lands while the United States and China hold delicate trade talks.
Separately, China on Monday accused Nvidia of breaking the country’s anti-monopoly law. The State Administration for Market Regulation disclosed the step after what it called a preliminary probe into Nvidia’s business practices. The announcement came as officials from both countries met in Madrid, where chips are expected to feature in the discussions.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the move “poor timing,” a comment analysts said could give Beijing leverage during the talks.
“It’s a warning that if the U.S. export control paradigm operates in the same way as in the past several years there will be consequences, and China is willing to inflict damage on U.S. companies,” said Zhengyuan Bo, a partner at research firm Plenum. He said the regulator’s early action was probably a reaction to the Trump administration’s move on Friday to add 23 Chinese firms to the U.S. trade blacklist.
Beijing wary of U.S. tech while Chinese demand remains strong
Huang visited China three times this year to signal long-term interest in the market and has said that selling AI technology there is important to the United States’ goal of leading the industry.
As Cryptopolitan reported previously, large platforms such as Tencent and TikTok owner ByteDance want Nvidia’s processors to build out data centers for fast-rising AI workloads.
But Beijing has discouraged such purchases as it tries to reduce reliance on U.S. technology. Last month, officials also asked Nvidia to clarify whether the H20, built for China, poses backdoor security risks that could affect user data and privacy.
Even after Washington authorized export licenses that would allow Nvidia to sell H20 chips in China in exchange for 15% of its sales in the country, no H20 shipments have gone out. Nvidia has held back because the U.S. has not yet set rules on how the payment would be handled. The overhang has pressured the stock, which fell 2% on Monday before trimming losses.
China may demand Nvidia chips without Mellanox tech
Nvidia said it is following the law and would “continue to cooperate with all relevant government agencies as they evaluate the impact of export controls on competition in the commercial markets.” The company declined to discuss where it stands with U.S. officials on paying the 15% share of China revenue. Neither the White House nor the Commerce Department offered an immediate comment.
“The real concern is the potential for China to impose new measures restricting Nvidia’s ability to sell networking solutions to Chinese customers,” said Ray Wang, lead semiconductor analyst at Futurum Group. He said the Mellanox equipment plays a “very important role, second to CUDA” in Nvidia’s ability to deliver top-tier networking for data centers.
Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at Omdia, said China could require Nvidia to sell chips without Mellanox technology attached. Still, Bo at Plenum said an adverse outcome in the antitrust matter would matter less than China’s longer-term push to build domestic options to Nvidia’s strongest AI chips. “This should not be taken as a sign that China is trying to kick Nvidia out of the country,” he said.
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Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/china-to-shut-door-on-nvidia-rtx-6000d/
