China: Graphics card shortage drives up prices in China.

Storyline Graphics card shortage drives up prices in China As the global memory chip market experiences a severe supply shortage, shops in southern China's famous electronics wholesale market Huaqiangbei, can't serve customers. The primary cause is that global graphics card manufacturers, like Nvidia, are shifting from making cards for consumer products to making those for AI, which is much more profitable. Shop owner, Huaqiangbei: "The agents didn't sell the graphics cards, so we fail to sell to our customers." Computer assembly vendors say prices for Nvidia's GDDR6- and GDDR7-equipped cards and other existing inventory are going up since no new stock is being produced. Even the company's mid-range RTX 5070 graphics cards are selling for hundreds over the typical asking price. Li Gaopeng, shop owner, Huaqiangbei: "After the notification from agents, the price has increased by about 30 percent in recent days. The price of RTX 5070 was roughly 660 to 740 U.S. dollars last year, but now it's 880 to 960 dollars. The price of RTX 5080 has risen from about 1,180 last year to over 1,700 dollars." E-commerce stores are also removing graphics card products from their platforms. Analysts say the card shortage will likely last until 2027 as manufacturers get up to speed with production backlogs. [Restrictions: No access Chinese mainland]