[News] Tencent Reportedly Makes Massive NVIDIA H20 Chip Purchase for WeChat’s DeepSeek Integration

According to the Chinese media outlet Calian News, Chinese tech giant Tencent has reportedly purchased a batch of new chips from NVIDIA. The report indicates that Tencent’s large-scale procurement of H20 chips is primarily to support the integration of DeepSeek into WeChat.

NVIDIA’s H20 AI chip was specifically developed for the Chinese market to comply with U.S. export restrictions. Sources indicate that Tencent’s order is worth billions of RMB. To meet Tencent’s demand, NVIDIA’s H20 chips have reportedly faced a short-term supply shortage, as the report notes.

Previously, there were concerns that DeepSeek might slow down the AI chip market. However, Reuters reports that Chinese companies are now increasing their NVIDIA H20 AI chip orders due to the rising demand for DeepSeek’s cost-effective AI models. According to Reuters, besides Tencent, Alibaba and ByteDance have also significantly increased their NVIDIA H20 purchases.

A report from GuruFocus highlights that Tencent and ByteDance are among NVIDIA’s largest clients in China, with both companies acquiring approximately 230,000 NVIDIA chips in 2024. Meanwhile, Microsoft remains the global leader, having purchased around 485,000 AI chips.

Meanwhile, a Bloomberg report from March noted that Tencent’s Yuanbao AI chatbot has surpassed DeepSeek to become the most downloaded iPhone app in China.

The Bloomberg report indicates that DeepSeek’s chatbot has energized China’s tech and internet industry, driving more investment and speeding up new product launches. For example, Alibaba Group has begun using DeepSeek as a benchmark and has announced a  $53 billion investment in AI.

Read more

• [News] DeepSeek Adoption Reportedly Fuels NVIDIA H20 Orders, Led by Tencent, ByteDance, Alibaba
• AI Server Growth in 2025 Faces Uncertainties, DeepSeek Effect to Boost AI Inference Share, Says TrendForce
• [News] China’s AI Compute Dilemma: Why Advanced GPUs Are Sitting Unused in Idle Data Centers?

(Photo credit: Tencent)