ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent ordered $35 billion of Nvidia RTX PRO 5500 cards. Delivery is another matter

ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent have ordered more than 3 million of Nvidia's new RTX PRO 5500 graphics cards, a collective sticker price above US$35 billion, according to two people familiar with the matter. Nvidia has told customers and partners it cannot guarantee it can fill the orders.

The order book is not a shipment

The numbers that matter are the ones Nvidia gave its partners. One source told Reuters that partners might receive only 5 percent to 10 percent of the quantities requested. Another said the company had indicated it could produce no more than 3 million RTX PRO 5500 cards globally next year. Total orders from customers in China have already exceeded 6 million, two sources said.

Reuters published the figures on Tuesday and noted the orders had not been previously reported. Cards are priced at about US$11,400 each, and the sources put the combined value above US$35 billion. Nvidia did not confirm those order values, and none of the three companies responded to requests for comment. Every number above rests on unnamed sources. The rush itself, Reuters reported, reflects how the curbs have tightened compute supply in the world's second-largest economy.

Why buyers want a workstation card

The RTX PRO 5500 is a workstation part, built for professional desktops rather than the linked racks that train frontier models. That is precisely why it is on the table. Nvidia's Blackwell-based B300 data-centre chip may not be sold to Chinese buyers at all, and Hopper-based H200 exports are reviewed case by case with licensing conditions attached. Buyers who cannot get the fenced-off parts take the fastest chip that remains legal, in whatever volume they can get.

Jensen Huang has said the curbs cut Nvidia's share of China's AI data-centre market from a near monopoly to effectively nothing. An Nvidia spokesperson told Reuters that Chinese producers of workstation chips and cards have seen "unprecedented growth since 2022," when the restrictions began, arguing US suppliers remain boxed in by outdated controls and by China's own limits on US imports.

What's next

Nvidia has told customers to expect early samples in December, with commercial deliveries starting in the first quarter of next year, two sources said. Capacity is the binding constraint: much of Nvidia's TSMC allocation next year is expected to go to Rubin, its next-generation data-centre platform, rather than parts like this one.

Washington is squeezing the buyer at the same time. DHS moved this week to enforce a July order removing DeepSeek from federal civilian systems, the domestic mirror of the same logic. Beijing keeps pushing homegrown silicon, and Huawei has gained share. None of that erases the demand. It redirects it to whatever part is still allowed.