Nvidia RTX PRO 5500 China Orders: Tianyang, Cambricon Exposure

ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent together ordered more than 3 million Nvidia RTX PRO 5500 graphics cards, worth over $35 billion in potential value, the Economic Times and seven other outlets reported on 20 October 2026. [1] With Nvidia planning to ship only 500,000 a quarter to China, smaller buyers further back may struggle to get cards.

The RTX PRO 5500 China orders

That is far above earlier reports: on 28 September, ByteDance alone was said to be considering about 1 million units. [2]

The RTX PRO 5500 is a professional card with 84 GB of GDDR7 memory and 21,760 CUDA cores. [2] On 27 September, Bloomberg, citing The Information, reported China signaled it may let Alibaba, ByteDance and others buy it. [3] A report the next day said Nvidia planned to ship 500,000 units a quarter to China from late 2026, about $26 billion a year. [2]

Background: who buys AI chips in China

Training and running AI models takes many accelerator chips. Nvidia is the mainstream choice; Chinese firms such as Cambricon make rival chips.

Chinese companies bought more than 1 million Nvidia gaming and workstation chips this year. [4] The RTX PRO 5500, a workstation card, is expected to cost about RMB 85,000, and an eight-card server about RMB 900,000. [5]

Besides the large platforms, some A-share companies are moving into compute leasing: they buy cards, build servers and rent computing time to customers. They usually order through distribution channels rather than from Nvidia. [5]

How the order could reach channel buyers and domestic chipmakers

First, at 500,000 cards a quarter, more than 3 million cards equal about six quarters of shipments. [1][2]

Second, when supply is short, the largest buyers usually come first. Second-tier channel buyers could see delayed deliveries or small allocations. An industry source told Cailian Press (translated from Chinese) that such orders would, if filled at all, "at most get a token allocation." [5]

Third, chip budgets are finite. With over $35 billion going to Nvidia, the same buyers may place fewer incremental domestic accelerator orders, mainly in 2027.

Nvidia (NVDA) is the direct beneficiary, but the order mainly extends visibility. The 500,000-a-quarter plan was public on 28 September, and the cap equals about $6.5 billion a quarter; unless Nvidia raises the China allocation, near-term added revenue is small. [2] Nvidia closed at $216.47 on 20 October, down 0.29%; on 28 September, when the plan was reported, it rose 1.68% to $228.86. [6]

Companies that could be affected

Tianyang Technology (300872.SZ) is an A-share company moving into compute leasing, at the channel-buyer link. On 9 October it agreed with a supplier to buy 20,000 RTX PRO 5500 cards. [7] At RMB 85,000 each, that is about RMB 1.7 billion, roughly a year of its revenue. [5][8]

If annual rent equals an assumed 35% of hardware cost, the cards could bring about RMB 600 million a year, about 35% of trailing-12-month revenue of RMB 1.73 billion. [8]

Its finances are thin. In the first half of 2026, net profit excluding non-recurring items was -RMB 6.9296 million and operating cash flow about -RMB 341 million; at end-June it had about RMB 508 million of cash and RMB 615 million of short-term borrowings. [5]

If deliveries slip or the allocation is small, the pivot's revenue and profit could move into the second half of 2027, and the company could come under pressure.

Tianyang rose 12.38% to RMB 16.16 on 9 October and closed at RMB 15.08 on 20 October, a market value of about RMB 7.3 billion. [6][8]

Cambricon (688256.SH) is a Chinese AI accelerator maker, at the budget-diversion link. The over $35 billion committed to Nvidia is about 28 times Cambricon's trailing-12-month revenue of about RMB 8.7 billion. [1][8]

Its customers are concentrated: the top five were 88.7% of 2025 sales, and Bloomberg reported in 2025 that ByteDance was the largest. [9] First-half 2026 revenue more than doubled to RMB 5.996 billion, with net profit of RMB 2.311 billion. [10]

As an estimate, if the three supply about 60% of revenue (not disclosed), a 20% cut in their orders would cut revenue about 12%; at a roughly 39% net margin, earnings would fall by a similar share. 2027 order and revenue growth could slow, depending on how the platforms split purchases. [8][10]

Cambricon closed at RMB 1,020 on 28 September, down 6.55%. On 20 October it closed at RMB 921, down 0.81%; the 3 million-card report came out after A-shares closed. [6]

What to watch

Nvidia expects to start shipping in late December 2026. Whether channel buyers get cards will show in first-quarter 2027 delivery updates and in Tianyang's 2026 annual and first-quarter 2027 reports, around April 2027.

First, Tianyang's third-quarter report, due by 31 October, and any formal announcement: do they state the contract value, schedule and a delivery date for the 20,000 cards?

Second, Cambricon's late-October third-quarter report: contract liabilities, prepayments and comments on customer concentration. Any budget diversion would show in order and contract-liability data from the fourth quarter of 2026 to the second quarter of 2027.

Third, Nvidia's late-November earnings call: the size of its China RTX PRO allocation and any plan above 500,000 cards a quarter.

Fourth, channel or grey-market prices in China above the roughly RMB 85,000 reference would signal scarce supply.

The chain breaks if Nvidia sharply raises China supply or the orders prove non-binding; if Tianyang reports on-time delivery of the 20,000 cards in the first quarter of 2027; if China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology caps approved quantities or sets domestic-purchase quotas, leaving orders with Cambricon and Huawei unchanged; or if Cambricon's contract liabilities and backlog from internet customers keep rising through the fourth quarter of 2026. Cambricon's output is limited by foundry capacity, so lower demand may not show in its shipments right away.

This piece only maps transmission chains that may be overlooked. It is not a stock recommendation.

Sources

[1] The Economic Times · 2026-10-20 · ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent place over $35 billion worth of Nvidia chip orders · https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/bytedance-alibaba-tencent-place-over-35-billion-worth-of-nvidia-chip-orders/articleshow/135066129.cms [2] KuCoin flash · 2026-09-28 · Nvidia Plans $26B Annual Revenue from RTX Pro 5500 Shipments to China · https://www.kucoin.com/news/flash/nvidia-plans-26b-annual-revenue-from-rtx-pro-5500-shipments-to-china [3] Bloomberg · 2026-09-27 · China May Let Alibaba Buy New Nvidia Chips, The Information Says · https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-27/china-may-let-alibaba-buy-new-nvidia-chips-the-information-says [4] Moneycontrol (citing the Financial Times) · 2026-10-13 · Chinese companies bought more than 1 million Nvidia gaming and workstation chips this year · https://www.moneycontrol.com/world/china-wants-to-break-its-dependence-on-nvidia-but-its-ai-companies-are-buying-more-of-its-chips-article-14050926.html [5] Eastmoney / Cailian Press · 2026-10-09 · Report on Tianyang Technology's 12% jump and its unconfirmed compute order · https://finance.eastmoney.com/a/202610093891392026.html [6] Drillr · 2026-09-25 to 2026-10-20 · Daily price data (NVDA, 688256.SH, 300872.SZ) [7] Sina Finance 7x24 · 2026-10-09 · Tianyang Technology signs GPU purchase agreement · https://finance.sina.cn/7x24/2026-10-09/detail-iniuquqf7190481.d.html [8] Drillr · 2026-10-20 · Company snapshot data (market value, price-to-sales) [9] Leon Liao · Inside Cambricon's AI workload test (based on Cambricon's 2024-2025 annual reports) · https://leonliao.substack.com/p/inside-cambricons-ai-workload-test [10] Implicator.ai · 2026-08 · Cambricon H1 revenue doubles · https://www.implicator.ai/cambricon-h1-revenue-doubles-china-ai-chips/