The decision has not been formally announced, and Reuters said it could not independently verify the report. Alibaba and ByteDance did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while the Chinese government could not immediately be reached.
The RTX PRO 5500 is designed for high-end professional computing. Some industry executives cited by The Information expect the chip to fall outside current U.S. export restrictions, which would remove one hurdle for Nvidia sales into China.
Beijing has spent recent months encouraging Chinese technology companies to rely more heavily on domestic accelerators. Allowing purchases of the Nvidia chip would represent a more flexible approach for companies that continue to need substantial computing capacity.
ByteDance and Alibaba are major buyers of AI infrastructure. Both operate large-scale computing systems used for model training, inference, consumer products and cloud services, making access to advanced processors an important part of their AI operations.
Nvidia has also faced limits from both sides of the market. U.S. export controls have restricted which products the company can sell into China, while Chinese authorities have separately pushed local companies toward domestic alternatives.
“US firms continue to be restricted by a combination of outdated US export controls, which cover gaming products released nearly half a decade ago, and China’s own limits on US imports,” an Nvidia spokesperson said.
The report does not indicate how many RTX PRO 5500 chips could be approved or when purchases might begin. It also remains unclear whether Beijing would impose additional conditions on companies receiving permission.
For now, the potential approval remains under consideration rather than finalized, but it would give ByteDance and Alibaba another Nvidia option as China continues balancing demand for computing capacity with its push to strengthen domestic chip suppliers.
This analysis is based on reporting from CNBC.
Image courtesy of The News International.
This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.
