China’s internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), has ordered leading domestic tech firms, including ByteDance and Alibaba, to stop buying Nvidia’s AI chips and cancel existing orders, according to the European media. This move comes shortly after a round of US-China trade negotiations in Madrid, where technology, supply chain dependencies and export controls featured prominently.
The immediate target is Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000D, a chip tailored for the Chinese market, and the order appears to be part of a broader effort by Beijing to reduce its dependence on American technology. In parallel, China has launched an antitrust investigation into the company, accusing it of violating competition rules tied to its 2020 acquisition of Mellanox Technologies. These actions suggest a coordinated strategy of both legal and regulatory pressure around the same time as diplomatic positioning abroad.
China appears to be signalling that domestic chip capability has matured sufficiently to begin replacing certain imports, and is anxious about US restrictions and scrutiny over how foreign chips are used, especially in AI. There have been earlier warnings: for example, in August China had cautioned firms over purchase of Nvidia’s H20 chip, citing national security and data privacy concerns.
Domestic leaders, such as Alibaba and ByteDance, are explicitly named. Those companies had already begun testing and placing orders for tens of thousands of the RTX Pro 6000D before being told to stop. Nvidia’s shares dropped about 1% in pre-market trading following the news.
The directive is immediate: testing and verification processes are to stop, and existing orders canceled. But the implications will unfold over months and years as China pushes its domestic chipmakers, and US firms weigh how market access under current export rules can be preserved. Trade talks in Madrid and elsewhere may be influenced by these regulatory moves, with a growing tension between the two potencies.
