China Signals It May Clear Nvidia Chip Buys for Bytedance, Alibaba
China is weighing whether to let Bytedance and Alibaba buy new Nvidia chips, with the industry ministry telling some companies it plans to approve the purchases.
China is considering allowing Bytedance and Alibaba to purchase new Nvidia chips, in a move that could ease restrictions on two of the country's largest technology firms.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has informed some Chinese companies that the government intends to approve such purchases, indicating a possible shift in Beijing's stance on access to the advanced semiconductors.
The development concerns new Nvidia chips and the two companies named, though the scope of the approvals and the specific products involved were not detailed.
Nvidia's chips are widely sought after for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing workloads, and any easing of purchase limits would be closely watched by the domestic technology sector. Bytedance and Alibaba both operate large cloud and AI businesses that depend on such hardware.
It was not immediately clear how many companies were told of the government's intent or what conditions, if any, would apply to the purchases.