Chip stocks fell in premarket trading. Nvidia, Broadcom dropped more than 2%; Intel, STM, SOXL, ASML, Micron fell around 1%.
Beijing’s internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), told large tech companies such as Alibaba and Bytedance that they should not use Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000D chip, the component specifically designed for sale in the world’s second-biggest economy, according to the Financial Times, which cited three sources.
The move comes as Beijing tries to bolster the domestic AI sector and follows earlier reports that Chinese officials had sought to dissuade the country’s tech companies from using Nvidia’s H20 AI chip. Meanwhile, Beijing and Washington are continuing dialogue over reaching a trade deal.
“We can only be in service of a market if a country wants us to be,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said later at a press conference in London. “I’m disappointed with what I see but they have larger agendas to work out between China and the United States. And I’m patient about it. We’ll continue to be supportive of the Chinese government and Chinese companies as they wish,” he added.