Chinese traders come to Vietnam to 'hunt' for graphics cards for AI

China is one of the countries actively participating in the race to develop AI (artificial intelligence) which is heating up day by day, however, businesses here are facing difficulties when the US banned the export of graphics cards containing US technology specialized in training and developing AI to this billion-people market. To "evade" the ban, companies in China have applied many different forms, including sending people to neighboring markets to buy graphics cards and then bring them back to the country.

Sharing with Thanh Nien on the sidelines of the Tech & Game Festival 2025 event, organized by GTV in collaboration with the Colorful brand on May 10 in Hanoi , Mr. Nguyen The Vuong - Director of Motherboard and VGA products at distributor Mai Hoang said that the market has recorded a trend of "hunting for AI graphics cards", especially when China is under a ban related to this device. "Their business community is flocking to other countries to collect graphics cards to resell to domestic AI companies," said Mr. Vuong.

Graphics cards continue to be in demand as more and more businesses look to train AI models

Photo: Anh Quan

Currently, China is constantly forming and developing small-scale companies specializing in AI, so the demand for quantity and upgrading is constantly increasing, forcing it to search from different sources to meet this "heat". This not only causes a shortage of graphics cards serving AI in Vietnam - a market near China, but also increases the selling price of the product. Accordingly, if a product previously cost from 30 to 40 million VND, now the selling price has doubled, even tripled, and can reach hundreds of millions of VND.

According to the distributor, as well as shared by Mr. Bui Tuan Cuong, representative of Colorful computer equipment company (one of the brands providing graphics card products in Vietnam), the supply is not enough for the normal market demand, now with the hunting of business people, from the end of 2024, the beginning of 2025, this product line has become scarce. Besides, unlike the collection of graphics cards for coin mining, which is eliminated after a period of time, the actual use in AI training has not recorded the type of depreciated goods being pushed to the market, but only the situation of buying more.

Germany bans use of Chinese 5G components

In the coming time, the demand for low-end graphics cards is predicted to end, when manufacturers change their direction, while ordinary users start to move to higher-end lines, instead of under 6 million VND, it will fluctuate from 8 to around 20 million VND due to increased usage needs and hardware requirements of applications.

"The supply is expected to continue to be scarce as companies producing low-end, low-cost components that cannot meet the demand for high-end products have to stop production or focus on the recycled goods segment, which is not suitable for AI. Companies that can meet the demand for new components and keep up with new technology have limited quantities, making it difficult to achieve output that meets market demand," said Mr. Nguyen The Vuong.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/dan-buon-trung-quoc-sang-viet-nam-san-lung-card-do-hoa-phuc-vu-ai-185250510201515411.htm