China is considering allowing Alibaba to buy Nvidia's RTX chips, The Information reported, a move that would mark a significant shift in how Beijing treats U.S. semiconductor exports to its cloud and AI sector.

RTX is Nvidia's consumer and gaming GPU family, built on architectures that overlap heavily with the company's data-center products. For Alibaba, which operates one of China's largest cloud computing businesses, access to RTX silicon could provide additional compute capacity for AI workloads at a time when Nvidia's most advanced data-center GPUs face U.S. export controls.

The report did not specify which RTX models Beijing might approve, the volumes involved, or a timeline for a decision. It also did not clarify whether any approval would extend to other Chinese buyers beyond Alibaba.

Washington has restricted Nvidia's top-tier AI accelerators — including the A100, H100 and successive China-market variants — from reaching Chinese customers without licenses. Nvidia has repeatedly reconfigured its product line in response, shipping cut-down China-specific parts designed to stay under U.S. performance thresholds. Beijing, in turn, has discouraged Chinese firms from purchasing those downgraded chips and has pushed domestic alternatives such as Huawei's Ascend accelerators.

Against that backdrop, a potential Chinese approval for RTX purchases would cut in an unusual direction. Rather than tightening restrictions on U.S. chips, Beijing would selectively permit them — a signal that Chinese regulators see compute supply from Alibaba's cloud as a priority worth accommodating, even amid a broader policy of favoring domestic silicon.

For Nvidia, even a partial reopening of the Chinese market through gaming-class GPUs would matter commercially. China accounted for a substantial share of the company's data-center revenue before U.S. controls tightened in 2022 and 2023, and Nvidia has repeatedly warned investors that further restrictions would cost it sales.

The report's status matters: this is a report of deliberation, not a decision. No approval has been announced by Chinese regulators, Nvidia or Alibaba, and terms of any potential arrangement remain unknown. If Beijing does green-light the purchases, it could reshape competitive dynamics between Nvidia, domestic accelerator suppliers and rival cloud providers across China's AI infrastructure market.