A massive order, limited supply
Citing sources, Reuters reports that ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent ordered more than 3 million Nvidia RTX Pro 5500 workstation GPUs. The total order value exceeds $35 billion, with cards priced at around $11,400 each.
Why this card
The RTX Pro 5500 complies with U.S. restrictions on AI-capable GPU exports to China. It has the same number of CUDA cores as the flagship RTX 5090 but comes with 84 GB of GDDR7 memory, making it attractive for AI workloads. Enterprise-focused models such as the H200 and B300 remain banned or heavily restricted.
Production can't keep up
According to the sources, Nvidia told customers the orders far exceed its planned production and that it can meet only 5-10% of demand. The company is reportedly able to produce just 3 million RTX Pro 5500 cards globally in 2027.
No official confirmation
Neither Nvidia nor the three Chinese companies confirmed the details on the record. An Nvidia spokesperson told Reuters that demand from the Chinese market has seen "unprecedented growth" since export restrictions were introduced in 2022, arguing that outdated U.S. export controls and China's own import limits continue to shape the market.
