China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has asked companies including Alibaba and ByteDance to detail how many Nvidia RTX Pro 5500 chips they intend to buy and for what purposes, according to reports citing people familiar with the matter. Officials have indicated to some firms that the purchases are likely to receive approval, though timing, volume limits and exact conditions remain unclear.

The RTX Pro 5500, released this month, is a high-end graphics processor designed primarily for professional workstations rather than Nvidia’s top-tier data-center AI accelerators. Built on the company’s Blackwell architecture, it features 84GB of memory but lacks certain high-speed networking and advanced memory capabilities found in flagship GPUs. Chinese companies are nonetheless interested because the chip can still support AI inference workloads when deployed in servers.

Potential Demand and Production Targets

ByteDance is reportedly considering an order on the scale of roughly one million RTX Pro 5500 units to power AI applications. Nvidia is targeting production of about 500,000 of the chips per quarter for the Chinese market. A single large order of that magnitude could therefore absorb multiple quarters of planned supply.

Alibaba and other major Chinese technology firms are also among those approached by the ministry. Any eventual approvals would come against a backdrop in which Chinese companies have been guided to reduce reliance on foreign chips while domestic alternatives from suppliers such as Huawei continue to develop.

Context of Restricted Market Access

Nvidia’s business in China has faced pressure from both U.S. export controls on advanced semiconductors and Beijing’s own restrictions aimed at fostering local industry. The company’s share of China’s advanced AI chip market has fallen sharply, with executives previously describing a drop from around 95 percent to effectively zero under tightened rules. Sales of the H200 chip in China have remained below 1 percent of Nvidia’s data-center revenue even after certain U.S. licenses were granted.

Some industry executives expect the RTX Pro 5500 to fall outside the strictest current U.S. export restrictions, given its primary design for professional computing rather than high-performance data-center training. However, final clearance would still depend on both Chinese regulatory decisions and compliance with American rules.

Neither Alibaba, ByteDance nor Chinese authorities have issued public comments on the reports. The ministry’s inquiries and signals of intent do not yet constitute formal approval, and key details such as approved quantities and any attached conditions have not been disclosed.

Implications for Supply Chains

If purchases proceed, the move could provide Nvidia with a renewed channel into a strategically important market at a time when the company anticipates broader acceleration in chip sales. It could also affect shipment volumes for Taiwanese server and component suppliers that support Nvidia’s hardware. Chinese firms rank among the largest global spenders on artificial-intelligence infrastructure, so even limited access to additional computing capacity would carry commercial significance.

The situation remains fluid. Approvals, if granted, would represent a measured adjustment rather than a full reversal of existing restrictions on both sides of the U.S.-China technology relationship.