As AI competition heats up, NVIDIA, the go-to "arms dealer" for AI chips, sees an increased demand, with recent reports corroborating this frenzy.
On Wednesday, August 9, Eastern Time, media reports suggested that Baidu, ByteDance, Tencent, and Alibaba have collectively placed orders with NVIDIA for AI chips amounting to $5 billion. Of this, NVIDIA is set to deliver about 100,000 A800 chips this year, valued at $1 billion, with the remaining $4 billion worth of chips to be dispatched in the following year.
Previously, in response to the export controls implemented by the Biden administration, NVIDIA launched the A800 chip exclusively for the Chinese market. However, as of the end of June, rumors emerged that the U.S. government was considering new export restrictions. These would prohibit chipmakers like NVIDIA from exporting to customers in China and other nations without proper licensing. If implemented, even the A800 chips would be banned from sale without the requisite permits.
Experts interviewed by the Global Times believe that such a move by the U.S. reflects its "national security first" stance, aiming to surpass China in the technological domain. However, they opined that such actions might not only strain U.S.-China relations but also be disadvantageous to the U.S. itself.
NVIDIA's A800 series chips were already in high demand in the Chinese market. Following the aforementioned media reports, there were frequent stories about surging NVIDIA chip prices in China.
In early July, The Paper reported that a NVIDIA representative in China mentioned fluctuating prices for the A800 chips. Depending on the volume of purchase, prices could go above 100,000 yuan per chip. They commented, "Given the rumors about sales bans, everyone is reluctant to sell, and over the past week, the price has increased by 20% to 30%."
