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The sudden scarcity of Nvidia Corp’s GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card in the mainland’s consumer market shows the far-reaching impact of Washington’s latest semiconductor export restrictions. Photo: Handout
TechTech War

Tech war: new US semiconductor restrictions spark panic across China’s consumer market for Nvidia’s sought-after RTX 4090 graphics card

  • The panic has been fuelled by the actions of Nvidia and major partners on the mainland to remove stock of the graphics card from their online stores
  • At some third-party online stores, the graphics card now costs between US$5,469 and US$6,836, nearly triple that of Nvidia’s recommended retail price
US-China tech war
Ann Cao
Ann Caoin Shanghai
Why you can trust SCMP
The United States’ latest restrictions on the export of advanced semiconductors to China has sparked panic among mainland consumers for Nvidia Corp’s in-demand GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card, a top-shelf device used by video gamers and graphics designers across the country to crank up computing performance.
The panic has been fuelled by the decision of Nvidia, the world’s most valuable semiconductor company, to remove its inventory of RTX 4090 graphics cards from its official store on Chinese shopping platform JD.com as of Thursday.
Several of Nvidia’s major hardware partners on the mainland – including AsusTek Computer, Micro-Star International (MSI) and Shenzhen-based Colorful Technology – have also pulled out stock of RTX 4090 from these firms’ respective online stores on Taobao or JD.com, which added to consumer anxiety over the local availability of the graphics card. Taobao is a unit of South China Morning Post owner Alibaba Group Holding.
The RTX 4090’s retail price surged up to 15,000 yuan (US$2,050) the day after the US Commerce Department announced the latest tech export controls on Tuesday, according to merchants at Shanghai’s sprawling electronics market.
An illustration of Nvidia Corp’s artificial intelligence-powered GeForce RTX graphics processing unit that is at the heart of the US company’s highly in-demand RTX 4090 graphics card. Photo: Handout

Nvidia did not reply to a request for comment on Thursday.

The sudden scarcity of RTX 4090 graphics cards in the mainland’s vast consumer market shows the far-reaching impact of Washington’s latest semiconductor export restrictions, which reinforce measures announced by the Biden administration in October last year.
Nvidia is particularly affected by the new restrictions, which would block sales of two less powerful artificial intelligence (AI) graphics processing units (GPUs) – the A800 and H800 – that the company created for the Chinese market. Those are the tweaked versions of Nvidia’s high-end A100 and H100 chips, which were banned for export to China under restrictions introduced last year.

Launched in September 2022, the RTX 4090 graphics card is powered by cutting-edge GPUs built on the 5-nanometre chip manufacturing process. Its AI-powered chips deliver “enhanced creativity and ultra-efficient productivity”, for applications like 3D rendering and 8K video editing, as well as “blisteringly fast gaming” for Windows-based personal computers, according to the Nvidia website.

Although many graphics cards on the market come from third-party brands like Asus, MSI and Gigabyte, they use GPUs from either Nvidia or Advanced Micro Devices.

US further restricts China from AI chips to hinder military development

A computer component retailer for Asus in Shanghai, Zhou Da, said on Thursday that many customers have approached him over the past two days to inquire about pricing on Nvidia’s graphics card and the possibility that shipment of these products would stop because of the new US restrictions.

“No one knows what will happen in the future,” Zhou said. “To be honest, [the RTX 4090] is a bit over-the-top for running video games at the current stage. Still, I told my customers to buy it as soon as they can.”

A customer service employee for Colorful’s official Taobao store said all of their RTX 4090 graphics cards had already sold out on Wednesday, adding that it was unclear if the product would be restocked in the near future.

Gigabyte, meanwhile, is among a number of Nvidia partners that simply put an “out of stock” label on the RTX 4090 in their online stores as of Thursday, but did not remove their inventory.

Latest US sanctions strike strong blow to China’s GPU champions

The action taken by Nvidia and its partners to clear out their online stock of RTX 4090 graphics cards quickly became a trending topic on Chinese microblogging service Weibo. A few hours after midnight on Thursday, Weibo flashed a message – “unable to show the content of the topic, according to relevant laws and regulations” – on the RTX 4090 discussion thread.

“For those who have already owned a 4090 card, you just need to cherish it as much as you can. Imagine what will happen to the future generations of Nvidia graphics cards,” wrote a Weibo user with the handle of “Haofuqi”.

In a filing, Nvidia said it may seek a licence for the products “to the extent that a customer requires products covered by the new licensing requirements”, but added that it has no assurance that the US government will grant any exceptions or licences, or do so in a timely manner.

At present, Chinese consumers can still buy available stock of the RTX 4090 graphics cards from a number of third-party merchants online as well as bricks-and-mortar stores. At some third-party stores on Taobao, the device now costs between 40,000 and 50,000 yuan, nearly triple that of Nvidia’s recommended retail price.

“I plan to buy a 4090 card this year or next year after I save enough money for it,” said Richard Zeng, a long-time PC games player in Shanghai. “But I don’t expect to pay an extra 20,000 yuan just because of the US sanctions.”

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