Well, it seems like China's AI market is now actually selling their NVIDIA RTX 4090D GPUs, as they look to "shave off" the extra computing capacity for more profits.
China's AI Firms Have Started To See Significantly Low Demand For AI Power; Compensating Losses By Selling RTX 4090D GPUs
The AI frenzy in China was unique compared to the rest of the world because the nation, which didn't have cutting-edge chips, relied on other means for its hardware needs. One of the ways Chinese firms managed to get AI power was by modding consumer GPUs like the RTX 4090D, putting high VRAM onboard in order to get more computing capabilities. However, DigiTimes now reports that domestic firms in China are selling their GPU inventory as the need for AI power cools off and firms are looking for more ways to squeeze in profits.
It is claimed that the GPU sell-off has occurred because many AI firms are experiencing significantly lower server utilization rates, going as low as 20%. This means that for such businesses to stay profitable, they would need to sell out their extra computing power, which is a major contributor to the sell-off. Apart from this, with the supply chain uncertainty in China following the new US export controls, it is certain that Chinese firms want to capitalize on it the most by selling GPUs at a time when prices are soaring.
NVIDIA's RTX 4090D 48 GB is going for as high as $6,000 in local markets, and with AI firms now selling their inventory, we do expect it to come down. This is good news for domestic consumers, but it will take a lot of time before the prices return to their "pre-AI" era. It is clear now that the AI firms have realized that they don't need much computing power to cater to the market demand. We recently reported on how this situation is similar in the AI cluster segment, where it is reported that more than 80% of China's AI computing resources are idle.
It will be interesting to see how the situation pans out regarding GPU availability in the Chinese markets, given that just a few weeks ago, such variants were pretty rare to acquire at decent prices.
