Nvidia Corp’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) RTX 4090 graphics cards became a sought-after commodity across Asia, particularly in Taiwan’s Guanghua Digital Plaza, where purchasing agents emptied shelves in a frenzy last October.
The cash-rich buyers aimed to resell the cards in markets restricted by the U.S., exploiting a lucrative price gap.
The RTX 4090, initially designed for rendering high-quality images in video games and capable of AI model training, found a booming market in Hong Kong and China amid U.S. export controls aimed at curbing China’s AI advancements, the Nikkei Asia reports.
Previous reports indicated how the U.S. sanctions led to a captive underground market for AI chips in China.
Meanwhile, the chip designer has started taking pre-orders for its latest AI chip, the H20, designed with the Chinese market in mind and positioned to directly challenge Huawei Technologies Co’s similar offerings in terms of price.
Nvidia is marketing its H20 chip, …