Dell Halts Sales of AMD GPUs in China Over Export Restrictions

Last month, the United States government tightened its export controls on cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chips. With the recent regulatory revisions, not only have computation cards used in data centers been affected, but also the consumer market’s most powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 gaming graphics card has not been spared. This has led to AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XT/XTX garnering increased favor among gamers in recent sales.

Image Source: Dell via Baidu

According to Wccftech, a Dell sales guide revealed plans to cease the sale of a range of products in China. This includes both the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT gaming graphics cards, the Radeon Pro W7900 workstation graphics card, and the Instinct MI250X, Instinct MI250, Instinct MI210, as well as the forthcoming entire Instinct MI300 series of computation cards.

The inclusion of multiple Instinct MI200/300 series computation cards in the restricted sales list for specific countries and regions was an anticipated development, regardless of whether they exceeded the established standards. However, it was unexpected that cards like the Radeon Pro W7900, Radeon RX 7900 XTX, and Radeon RX 7900 XT, which do not meet the corresponding TPP standards, would also be affected.

Theoretically, since several of the gaming and workstation graphics cards are not purely data center products, they should be eligible to continue being sold in restricted areas through qualified retailers. However, obtaining the necessary certification may take some time. If stocks deplete rapidly, it’s conceivable that a shortage in GPU supply and a consequent price hike will occur soon. Although the primary restrictions seem to target the sale of high-performance graphics cards in China, the impact is also felt in other regions, leading to supply constraints and price increases.

Media outlets have already reached out to Dell and AMD for further information, but so far, no response has been received.