Chinese AI Firms Reportedly Offloading NVIDIA RTX 4090D GPUs Amid Declining Demand and Soaring Prices

In a surprising development reflecting shifting market dynamics, AI-focused companies in China are reportedly offloading their inventories of NVIDIA RTX 4090D GPUs, capitalizing on inflated prices amidst cooling demand for high-performance compute. As reported by DigiTimes, this trend emerges as server utilization across China’s AI firms has dropped dramatically, with some reporting rates as low as 20%—a sharp contrast to last year’s intense infrastructure race that saw extreme demand for any form of accessible compute hardware.

Unlike many Western firms that rely primarily on enterprise-grade accelerators such as NVIDIA’s A100 and H100 GPUs, China’s AI ecosystem—constrained by U.S. export regulations—has leaned heavily on modified consumer-grade GPUs to meet their computing needs. One of the most favored solutions has been the RTX 4090D, a 48 GB variant customized for AI inference and local training tasks, created to circumvent restrictions imposed on the standard RTX 4090 under U.S. sanctions.

As demand now falters and compute capacity sits idle, these firms are pivoting their strategies. By reselling high-value GPUs into the open market—where local shortages have sent prices soaring to as high as $6,000 USD per unit—companies are seeking to recover costs and preserve margins. This has created a sudden and somewhat unexpected influx of RTX 4090D units in the Chinese GPU resale ecosystem, which had previously been marked by tight availability and soaring prices fueled by AI demand.

Sources indicate that this liquidation effort is not only about recouping investment but also a way to hedge against future supply chain instability, particularly in light of ongoing U.S. export controls. With geopolitical pressures influencing technology flows and supply chains, firms in China are seizing the moment to monetize unused inventory at a time when the hardware still holds premium value.

While the resale of GPUs may alleviate short-term price inflation in local markets—especially for domestic gamers and content creators who have been priced out of high-end GPUs—the impact may be short-lived. Analysts warn that a true return to pre-AI pricing levels will require a broader structural correction, one that reflects long-term demand equilibrium rather than temporary oversupply.

This scenario is reminiscent of similar dynamics playing out across various tech verticals in China’s AI sector, where initial overscaling driven by aggressive investment has resulted in underutilized infrastructure. Now, with many firms reassessing their actual compute needs, the market is recalibrating from a phase of speculative expansion to a more pragmatic operational footing.

Do you think these GPU sell-offs will help normalize prices in other regions? Would you consider purchasing an RTX 4090D if it became more widely available? Let us know what you think about this evolving hardware market shift.