Baidu, ByteDance, Tencent and Alibaba ordered $5 billion in processors for generative AI

On August 10, 2023, it became known that the Chinese companies Baidu, ByteDance, Tencent and Alibaba ordered Nvidia chips for $5 billion to develop and maintain projects in the field of generative artificial intelligence.

According to the newspaper, Financial Times such a large purchase is explained by sanctions from the groan. USA Fearing new restrictions, companies PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA are in a hurry to purchase Nvidia's high-performance solutions necessary to create AI systems. Baidu, owner TikTok of ByteDance, Tencent and Alibaba have placed orders worth about $1 billion for the purchase of approximately 100,000 Nvidia A800 accelerators: these products will be delivered by the end of 2023. In addition, the listed Chinese corporations ordered Nvidia graphics solutions for $4 billion, shipments of which are scheduled for 2024.

Chinese companies ordered Nvidia chips for $5 billion

An Nvidia spokesman did not comment in detail on the information made public, but said "consumer internet companies and cloud providers invest billions of dollars annually in data center components, often placing orders many months in advance."

A800 is a stripped-down version of the Nvidia A100 accelerator, created specifically for the Chinese market in response to US restrictions. Meanwhile, there are fears that the United States will impose new sanctions that limit supplies to the PRC even products with deliberately weakened productivity. At the same time, Chinese corporations require additional computing resources to implement AI projects.

Nvidia's chief financial officer said in June 2023 that restrictions on the export of AI chips to China "will lead to a constant loss of opportunities for US industry," although the company does not expect immediate significant consequences. Baidu, ByteDance, Tencent and Alibaba declined to comment.^[1]

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