China blocks sale of Nvidia AI chips (arstechnica.com)

China’s internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), has ordered the country’s largest tech firms — including ByteDance and Alibaba — to stop testing and buying Nvidia’s China-tailored GPU, the RTX Pro 6000D. Several companies had already begun verification with Nvidia’s server suppliers and lined up orders running into the tens of thousands, but suppliers were told to halt work after the CAC directive. The move broadens earlier regulatory pressure that targeted Nvidia’s other China-only product, the H20, signaling a more explicit curtailment of Nvidia hardware procurement by domestic internet giants. The ban is significant because it accelerates Beijing’s push to replace foreign AI hardware with homegrown chips and reflects a confidence — according to regulators — that domestic accelerators have reached performance parity with Nvidia’s China models. Practically, the decision disrupts GPU supply chains, delays deployment of large-scale training and inference clusters inside China, and raises the prospect of faster investment in local silicon and server ecosystems. It also deepens the hardware split in the US–China AI rivalry and poses near-term revenue and market-access risks for Nvidia; CEO Jensen Huang acknowledged geopolitical headwinds while noting patience as firms navigate these broader trade and policy tensions.