Nvidia shipments to China fall 44% to 678,000 accelerators in first half of 2026

Key Facts

Some 678,000 Nvidia AI accelerators were shipped to China between January and June 2026, down 44% from the same period a year earlier, according to a Reuters report published by MarketScreener. The company’s share of China’s AI data center chip market fell to 34% in the first half, signaling a shrinking position in a market it had served with its advanced chips. The decline came amid U.S. restrictions limiting supplies of its products, as domestic rivals led by Huawei gained share. Alongside the weaker shipments, ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent reportedly ordered more than 3 million RTX PRO 5500 cards. The orders have a nominal value of more than $35 billion, but that does not mean the cards will all be delivered or that the value will become company revenue.

Huawei shipped about 572,000 accelerators in China in the first half of 2026, giving it a 28% market share, compared with more than 300,000 units in the same period a year earlier, according to Reuters via MarketScreener. The figures put the Chinese company closer to Nvidia in the accelerator market, as its shipments grew while its U.S. rival declined. Reuters linked the wider presence of domestic competitors to U.S. export restrictions that curbed Nvidia supplies and Beijing’s search for local alternatives. Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang estimated China’s AI chip market at about $50 billion and said export policy had forced Nvidia to cede the market to Huawei. In its disclosure for the second quarter of fiscal 2027, Nvidia said export controls had harmed its competitive position and that their continuation or expansion could hurt future results and push customers toward competitors or to develop their own solutions.

The reported orders are for more than 3 million RTX PRO 5500 cards from ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent, with a nominal value exceeding $35 billion, Bloomberg Law reported, citing Reuters. These workstation cards comply with restrictions and do not represent a broad return of advanced data center chip shipments to China. Nor does the order volume prove Nvidia will be able to fill them; the company faces a production cap, while deliveries depend on approvals and the expected timeline. Reuters reported in September that China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had asked ByteDance and Alibaba to submit purchasing plans, and that the ministry told some companies the government intended to approve the purchases. But Reuters said it could not verify the report, so the reported approvals remain part of the order’s context and are not confirmation that shipments have been completed. The value exceeding $35 billion is the total nominal price of the cards ordered, not realized revenue.

Nvidia products in China face different restrictions depending on the processor type, according to Bloomberg Law. Washington bars sales of the B300 card, based on the Blackwell architecture, to Chinese buyers, while exports of the H200, based on the Hopper architecture, are reviewed case by case and subject to licensing conditions. A U.S. official told a congressional committee, according to Reuters in July, that H200 shipments to China had begun, but exports up to that point were "extremely limited." In September, Nvidia said U.S. companies faced a combination of U.S. export restrictions and Chinese import restrictions, limiting their ability to operate in the market. A company spokesperson added that "U.S. companies remain constrained by a combination of outdated U.S. export controls and Chinese restrictions on imports from the United States." These restrictions illustrate the difference between demand for compliant workstation cards and access to the most advanced data center accelerators.

Sources expected initial samples of RTX PRO 5500 cards to arrive in December, with commercial deliveries beginning in the first quarter of 2027. The timeline puts fulfillment months after the orders were announced, while actual delivery volumes remain tied to approvals and production capacity. In August, Nvidia denied that it planned to launch an LPU processor for China, saying "there are no LPU processor sales in the Chinese market today, and no China-specific product in the roadmap." The statements underscore that the reported demand for RTX PRO 5500 cards is separate from a China-specific product the company said it was not planning at the time. Nvidia shares closed at $218.0938 on October 27, 2026, according to EL7 data. The available facts do not include a comparative price or daily share move that would allow the close to be directly linked to the shipment and order news.