NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090s Fetching Up to $5,000 in China’s Black Market Amid “Crypto-Like” Demand Surge

Recent developments surrounding DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence models have significantly increased the demand for NVIDIA’s gaming GPUs in China. Consumers are opting for powerful options like the RTX 50 series to deploy AI solutions directly on their systems.

Surging Demand for NVIDIA’s Consumer GPUs Among Chinese AI Companies

The ongoing enthusiasm for AI technology in China shows no signs of waning, particularly following the introduction of DeepSeek’s R1 AI models, which have catalyzed substantial growth in the sector. As reported by The Information, citing sources in the smuggling community, the necessity for NVIDIA’s gaming GPUs—especially the GeForce RTX 5090—is skyrocketing. This surge is attributed to the severe difficulty many companies face in acquiring mainstream AI processors.

DeepSeek’s skyrocketing popularity has boosted demand for Nvidia’s gaming chips in the underground market as tech firms realize they can run DeepSeek’s models at a fraction of the price of AI chips, according to five chip smugglers.

– The Information

Industry insiders have noted the effectiveness of running DeepSeek models on NVIDIA’s consumer GPUs as opposed to traditional AI accelerators like the H20. This preference has resulted in a swell of demand. Currently, the availability of “stripped-down”variants like the GeForce RTX 5090D is limited, with some reports indicating that black market prices for the RTX 5090 have surged to nearly $5, 000.

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The RTX 50 series, despite encountering issues such as missing ROPs, appears to be exceptionally well-suited for both consumer and professional users. DeepSeek has undeniably disrupted the global AI landscape, with models like the R1 demonstrating high performance when paired with consumer-grade GPUs. Consequently, many Chinese firms are leaning towards acquiring the RTX 5090 instead of investing in costly AI clusters.

NVIDIA’s advantages in AI computational power through its consumer-grade GPUs are substantial, primarily due to their superior VRAM capacity and advanced specifications. For example, the RTX 5090 is equipped with an impressive AI TOPS rating of 3, 352 and 5th Generation Tensor Cores, positioning it as a formidable alternative to dedicated AI accelerators. This has led to an overwhelming demand for NVIDIA GPUs in China, reinforcing NVIDIA’s status as a market leader.

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