Nvidia logo against the backdrop of China's national flag. Reuters Yonhap News. 

Chinese authorities have prohibited domestic companies from purchasing Nvidia's latest China-specific artificial intelligence (AI) chips, according to three sources familiar with the matter, reported the British Financial Times (FT) on the 17th.

According to the report, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) notified domestic companies, including ByteDance and Alibaba, this week to halt testing and orders for the 'RTX 6000D,' a new, lower-specification chip designed for China for inference tasks.

Several companies had indicated they would order tens of thousands of RTX 6000D units and had begun testing and verification of the chip with Nvidia's server suppliers, but they have suspended related work following the CAC's directive, the sources added.

The ban goes beyond previous measures by Chinese authorities targeting another Nvidia China-specific AI chip, the H20, the FT pointed out.

Previously, Chinese authorities urged domestic companies last month to limit their purchases of the H20, expressing strong opposition to its use by state-owned or private enterprises for government or national security-related work.

These measures are interpreted as pressure on domestic companies to reduce their reliance on Nvidia and secure their own chip supply chains, thereby enhancing their competitiveness in the AI race with the United States.

A Chinese company executive stated, "The message has now become bigger and clearer," adding, "Previously, we held out hope that Nvidia's supply would resume if the geopolitical situation improved, but now everyone must focus on building domestic systems."

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the RTX 6000D is being shunned by Chinese clients, and that in sample tests, the chip performed worse than the RTX 5090 in terms of performance.

While this product is designed based on Nvidia's latest architecture, Blackwell, it uses standard GDDR memory instead of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), which is high-performance memory. Consequently, Chinese companies are more interested in the H20, a high-performance chip capable of AI training, rather than the RTX 6000D, Reuters added.

In response to these reports, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang expressed his disappointment, according to reports from AP, AFP, and others.

Visiting London alongside U.S. President Donald Trump, who was on a state visit to Britain, he said, "We can only serve the market if the country wants us to." He continued, "I'm disappointed with what I'm seeing, but there are bigger agendas between the United States and China to deal with. I'm patient about it."

He added, "As we sort out these geopolitical policies, we will continue to support the Chinese government and companies as they wish."

Huang stated that he had not spoken with President Trump in recent days and remarked, "The President will probably ask me tonight (at the state banquet at Windsor Castle). I will likely say something similar."

The export of the H20 was prohibited in April due to enhanced export controls by the Trump administration, but its export was later allowed in July during U.S.-China trade negotiations, though actual shipments have not occurred.

Nvidia had agreed to pay 15% of its sales revenue from exports to China to the U.S. government in exchange for export approval, but regulations regarding this are still being finalized.

Yonhap News