Frenzy for new Nvidia gaming chips causes chaos in Tokyo
The ensuing commotion, which went viral on Japanese social media, was a physical manifestation of the impact of the US-China tech war on gamers looking for an upgrade and resellers catering to them.
Up to 400 people showed up last week in Akihabara — a popular shopping district for buying video games, manga and anime — hoping to snap up the US chipmaker's latest series of GeForce RTX 50 graphics cards, according to the electronics chain PC Koubou.
The ruckus caused by buyers obstructing the pavement and trespassing on a nearby property eventually forced the outlet to cancel the sale. It apologized earlier this week.
'We formally present our deepest apologies for the great commotion that has burdened and worried our customers, neighboring communities and related parties,' PC Koubou said in a statement on Monday.
Taizo Hashida, a director at Unitcom, the company that owns the chain, told CNN on Wednesday that about 90% of the hopeful buyers were Chinese-speaking customers.
The new graphics cards, launched on January 30 and sought after feverishly by game enthusiasts, promise better processing speeds and image rendering ability. That means they provide better visuals and a smoother gaming experience.
But the series is not available in China, which is subject to US export restrictions on advanced computer chips. The measures are part of Washington's efforts to prevent its rivals from accessing the advanced technology that can power artificial intelligence (AI) systems and weapons development.
Chinese gamers say they are getting what they call a 'castrated version' of Nvidia's latest release. The company has created a modified version with a slower AI component exclusively for the Chinese market. The discrepancy has driven up demand for the current generation in places like Japan.
Gil Luria, head of tech research at investment group D.A. Davidson, said the US restrictions apply to the latest cards because they can be used to develop AI tools.
'For diehard gamers, the difference between the allowed chips and restricted chips can be meaningful, which is why they may be seeking them in other markets,' he said.
Last Thursday, PC Koubou offered to sell dozens of the GeForce series, including 10 of the top RTX 5090 chips and 47 RTX 5080 chips, to those who had won a lottery at its Akihabara store. But the turnout far exceeded their expectations, it said in the Monday statement.
Videos circulated online showed chaotic scenes near the store, with hundreds of buyers squeezing into a narrow pavement and spilling onto the road.
Calls by the staff to line up in order were ignored, with at least one man climbing over a fence to enter a nearby kindergarten, footage showed. A sign hung on a fence at the kindergarten was snapped in half, local media reported.
The store called off the sale and launched a two-day online lottery for Tuesday, with the result to be announced later.
It was not the first time Nvidia had tailored a gaming chip for the Chinese market in a bid to comply with US export controls.
Last year, Nvidia started selling a China-focused RTX 4090D, which was 5% slower in gaming performance compared to its international version RTX 4090, Reuters reported.
The current version RTX 5090 sold outside China can handle 3,352 trillion operations per second (TOPS). Its equivalent in the Chinese market, the RTX 5090D, offers just 2,375 TOPS, making it about 29% less powerful, according to the specifications on the website. Both versions share the same specifications in other areas.
The RTX 5090 chip is priced at $1,999 in the US, compared to about $2,600 in Japan. Its modified cousin RTX 5090D is sold at about $2,270 in China.
Demand in China for the latest generation cards is so high that Chinese resellers are already advertising the chips bought outside the country for up to $5,700 on Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao.
On Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, there are numerous posts asking for or offering tips to buy the chips overseas.
One user said he wanted to buy from South Korea. 'Tell me about the risk. Is there anything I should watch out for?' he wrote.
Another user, who claimed to be a student in Thailand, said he wanted to make some money to support his studies.
'Student in Thailand hoping to earn some money for my tuition fee,' the person wrote. 'If I bring some RTX 5090s back, will there be rich men who will take them?'
CNN has reached out to Nvidia for comment.
Joyce Jiang contributed reporting.
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