Nvidia's China-specific RTX6000D chip sees weak demand in Chinese market

The newly launched RTX6000D AI chip, which is specifically tailored to the Chinese market, is facing cool demand with a number of leading technology companies not making any orders, as sources in procurement discussions have indicated.

The chip, tailored to comply with U.S. export restrictions, is reportedly seen as expensive for its performance level, with testing indicating it lags behind the RTX5090 available through grey markets at less than half the price.

Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba, Tencent, and the online video recommendation engine ByteDance are proving to be cautious in their procurement approach, not only to the RTX6000D but also the H20 chip of Nvidia, shipments of which have not yet resumed despite the renewed export license.

It has been reported that these companies are hanging in the hope that U.S. authorities will approve the more powerful B30A chip which has much better performance metrics.

The restraint is indicative of the greater uncertainty in the U.S.-China technology trade ties, which were recently increased by Beijing, alleging that Nvidia broke the anti-monopoly law in China.

The low response is a stark contrast to the projections of the analysts. 

JPMorgan had projected 1.5 million units to be produced in the second half of 2025, and Morgan Stanley predicted that 2 million chips would be in the pipeline.

As industry experts have observed, Chinese authorities have been promoting the use of Chinese-manufactured chips and have even recalled companies to clarify why they remain interested in Nvidia products, given the risks these chips might pose to their information security. 

This set of performance issues, pricing pressures and geopolitical tensions have posed major headwinds on the new market specific product offering of Nvidia.