Sept 27 (Reuters) – The Chinese government has signaled it could allow some domestic companies like ByteDance and Alibaba to buy Nvidia’s chip built for high-end professional computers, The Information reported on Sunday, citing two people familiar with the matter.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently asked companies including ByteDance and Alibaba to report their plans to purchase Nvidia’s RTX PRO 5500 chips, according to the report.
The ministry told some Chinese companies the government intends to approve the purchases, The Information report said, adding some industry executives expect the RTX PRO 5500 chip to avoid US export restrictions.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
“US firms continue to be restricted by a combination of outdated US export controls, which cover gaming products released nearly a half a decade ago, and China’s own limits on US imports,” an Nvidia spokesperson said, when asked to comment on the report.
Alibaba and ByteDance did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. Reuters was not immediately able to contact the Chinese government for comment.
(Reporting by Sumedha Mukherjee and Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by Nia Williams)
