China reportedly bans tech companies from buying NVIDIA's AI chips

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has reportedly banned Chinese tech companies, including ByteDance and Alibaba, from purchasing NVIDIA's newest AI chip, the RTX Pro 6000D, for the Chinese market. This ban is stronger than the "guidance" the regulator previously issued against NVIDIA's older H20 chips. NVIDIA's CEO, Jensen Huang, expressed disappointment over the ban but said the company would "support the US" as it resolves its geopolitical issues with China. The ban comes after Chinese regulators concluded that locally-made AI chips are now comparable to or have even exceeded the counterparts NVIDIA is selling in China. The regulators have gathered domestic chipmakers, including Huawei and Baidu, to ask for a report on how their products compare against NVIDIA's. Additionally, the ban follows another Chinese regulator's accusation that NVIDIA has violated China's antitrust laws over its acquisition of chipmaker Mellanox. The article notes that Chinese companies had previously indicated they would be ordering and testing tens of thousands of the AI chip based on NVIDIA's Blackwell architecture, but some have decided not to place orders, potentially holding out for NVIDIA's more powerful B30A model, which is awaiting approval for export by US authorities.