China weighs Nvidia chip purchases by ByteDance and Alibaba

China is considering whether to allow selected companies, including ByteDance and Alibaba, to buy Nvidia’s RTX Pro 5500 workstation chips, but no final approval or orders have been confirmed. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has asked some firms about the quantities they want and how they would use the hardware, according to reports based on The Information’s account. The ministry has also told some companies that Beijing intends to approve purchases, Reuters reported, while noting it could not independently verify that account. The inquiries appear limited to selected firms; authorities have not publicly announced approval terms, purchase limits or a broader policy change. ByteDance is reportedly weighing an order of about one million chips, a provisional figure that could change. The company has not publicly confirmed an order. The available reporting does not specify how many chips Alibaba may seek, and neither company has a confirmed delivery schedule. Nvidia reportedly aims to begin shipments to China in late December and is targeting about 500,000 units per quarter for the country.