JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT the GPU market had returned to normal, the US government creates another GPU shortage. Restrictions have been placed on Nvidia’s RTX 4090, notionally preventing export to China on the basis that the GPU is so powerful, it may be useful for AI research and development. That had the impact of seeing more RTX 4090s flooding into China before the ban.
Even with the ban live, there are reports of RTX 4090s being stockpiled in countries bordering China. All of that underlines that the move is more about politics and optics. If the RTX 4090 is freely available across most of the world, China finds the RTX 4090 useful in its AI quest, and is suitably motivated, the idea that
