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China has barred domestic tech giants like ByteDance and Alibaba from buying Nvidia’s AI chips, escalating the chip war with the US.
Context: earlier this year, the US restricted exports of advanced GPUs to China, forcing Nvidia to design the RTX Pro 6000D specifically for the Chinese market. Now Beijing has slammed the door shut, urging firms to shift to homegrown chips from the likes of Huawei.
The why: for Beijing, it’s about self-reliance & cutting dependence on US tech and boosting local players.
For Nvidia, the ban stings. CEO Jensen Huang called the move “disappointing” but admitted China is now a “roller coaster” market that analysts shouldn’t factor heavily into forecasts.
Consequences: China’s AI race could slow down, with companies losing access to the GPUs that power today’s AI boom. On the other side, Nvidia risks losing one of its biggest markets, even as it leans harder into the US and Europe.
Big theme: the US–China chip war has turned into a full-blown tech cold war. The US doesn’t want China to get the most advanced semiconductors. That’s why Washington has been slapping export bans on powerful chips. On the other side, Beijing is pushing its tech giants to build their own chips so they don’t have to rely on American suppliers like Nvidia.
