ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent Ordered Over $35B of Nvidia RTX PRO 5500 Cards, Reuters Reports; Fill Rate May Be 5–10%

China's largest platforms are still placing multibillion-dollar orders for a cut-down Nvidia part — and Nvidia, not a new licence, may be the bottleneck. Reuters, citing two people familiar with the matter, reported on Tuesday, October 20 that ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent have ordered more than 3 million of Nvidia's new RTX PRO 5500 graphics cards at about $11,400 each, for a combined sticker price of more than $35 billion. A third person, together with the first two, said Nvidia has told customers and partners it cannot guarantee it will fill the orders. One source said partners might receive only 5% to 10% of requested quantities.

That $35 billion is the face value of the orders, not booked revenue. At a 5–10% fill rate, the revenue that would actually ship would be a fraction of the sticker total. Every figure below is anonymous-source Reuters reporting; The Next Web restates the same exclusive and is not independent corroboration.

What Reuters says was ordered

The RTX PRO 5500 is a workstation card for professional computers, not a data-centre training chip. Reuters calls it among the most powerful Nvidia parts still sold to Chinese buyers: the Blackwell B300 is barred under US export controls, and H200 exports are reviewed case by case. Reuters labels the card export-compliant, not export-approved; we saw no Bureau of Industry and Security statement confirming a licence.

Buyers want the cards mainly for inference, the three sources said. Nvidia has told customers to expect early samples in December and commercial deliveries from the first quarter of 2027, they added. One source said Nvidia indicated it could produce no more than 3 million RTX PRO 5500 cards globally in 2027; two sources said total orders from China have exceeded 6 million. From 2027, Nvidia is expected to devote much of its TSMC capacity to Rubin rather than products like the RTX PRO 5500, two sources said; TSMC declined to comment.

An Nvidia spokesperson said US firms remain restricted by "outdated US export controls" and China's own limit on US imports. ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent, BIS and China's MIIT did not respond, Reuters reported.

The order volume lands in the same week as China's draft export controls on 23 AI technologies and the DHS move to remove DeepSeek from civilian federal IT.

Limits

• Single-wire exclusive with anonymous sources; every figure is Reuters' reporting.
• $35B is order sticker value, not revenue; the 5–10% fill guidance makes a near-$35B book impossible on these orders alone.
• "Export-compliant" is Reuters' wording; we do not treat it as a BIS approval.

Sources

• Reuters via IEX.nl: Exclusive — ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent place over $35 billion worth of Nvidia chip orders (October 20, 2026)
• The Next Web: ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent order $35bn of Nvidia chips, Reuters reports (October 20, 2026)
• Times of AI: China draft AI export controls on 23 technologies (October 20, 2026)
• Times of AI: DHS FASCSA order removes DeepSeek from civilian IT (October 20, 2026)