**FT Reports: “China Orders Suspension of Orders and Tests for Low-End RTX 6000D”**
Jensen Huang: “May Discuss This Issue with Trump”
(Seoul, London = Yonhap News) Reporter Sook-hee Kwon, Correspondent Ji-yeon Kim = The Financial Times (FT), citing three sources familiar with the matter, reported on the 17th that Chinese authorities have prohibited domestic companies from purchasing NVIDIA’s latest AI chips specifically designed for China.
According to the report, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) informed local companies, including ByteDance and Alibaba, this week to halt tests and orders of the low-end chip ‘RTX 6000D,’ which is intended for inference tasks.
Some companies had declared their intention to order tens of thousands of RTX 6000Ds and even began testing and verification with NVIDIA’s server suppliers but have stopped related activities following CAC’s directive, the sources added.
FT noted that this ban goes beyond previous measures targeting NVIDIA’s other China-specific AI chip, the H20.
Earlier, Chinese authorities had urged domestic companies last month to limit purchases of the H20, strongly opposing its use by state-owned or private companies in government or national security-related projects.
These measures are interpreted as efforts to reduce dependence on NVIDIA and to push domestic companies to secure their own chip supply chains to stay competitive in the AI race against the US.
A Chinese company executive stated, “The message is now even bigger and clearer,” adding, “Previously, there was hope that NVIDIA’s supply would resume if the geopolitical situation improved, but now everyone must be dedicated to building a domestic system.”
Additionally, Reuters reported that the RTX 6000D is being shunned by Chinese customers, noting that in sample tests, it falls short of the performance of the RTX 5090.
Although designed based on NVIDIA’s latest Blackwell architecture, the RTX 6000D uses general GDDR memory instead of high-performance High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM). As a result, Chinese companies are more interested in the high-performance H20, capable of AI training, Reuters added.
Responding to these reports, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang expressed disappointment, as reported by AP and AFP.
Huang, accompanying US President Donald Trump on a state visit to the UK, said, “We can only provide services in a market where we are wanted by the country.” He added, “While the current situation is disappointing, there are bigger issues between the US and China that need to be addressed, and we must be patient.”
He also mentioned, “As we sort through these geopolitical policies, we will continue to support what the Chinese government and companies want.”
Huang noted that he has not spoken with President Trump recently but anticipated, “the President might ask me about it tonight at the state dinner at Windsor Castle. I will likely say something similar.”
The H20 had its export banned under strengthened export controls by the Trump administration in April this year, but its export was allowed again during the US-China trade talks in July, although actual shipments have not occurred.
NVIDIA agreed to pay 15% of its China export revenue to the US government as a concession for export approval, but the regulations for this have not been finalized.
suki@yna.co.kr