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Tech war: updated US semiconductor export restrictions raise demand in China for Nvidia’s RTX 4090 graphics card
- Vendors at Huaqiangbei, the world’s biggest wholesale electronics marketplace, are stockpiling graphics cards ahead of the revised US curbs’ roll-out
- The updated measures make it harder for China to access advanced AI processors, chip-making tools and even laptops built with those semiconductors
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Iris Dengin Shenzhen
The latest restrictions imposed by the United States on the export of artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors to mainland China have turned graphic cards into some of the most sought-after items in Huaqiangbei, the world’s biggest wholesale electronics marketplace.
“The demand for high-end graphic cards remains very robust, especially after the export curbs imposed by the US government,” said Cai Zhaojie, a vendor at Huaqiangbei in the Futian district of tech hub Shenzhen, southern Guangdong province.
The Biden administration last Friday revised sweeping export controls it implemented last October, making it harder for the mainland to have access to advanced AI processors, semiconductor-manufacturing equipment and even laptop computers built with those chips, according to a Reuters report. The revised rules will take effect on April 4.
“After news of the latest US restrictions broke, all merchants started stocking up on various AI-related goods they could get, and are now waiting to sell these at a high price,” Cai said on Monday.
That has made Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090, a top-shelf device used by video gamers and graphics designers to crank up computing performance, the most-coveted graphics card in the market.
Efforts by Huaqiangbei merchants to amass a stockpile of RTX 4090 graphics cards show the far-reaching impact of Washington’s latest chip export restrictions, which further reinforce the initial measures announced by the Biden administration in October 2022.
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