According to Digitimes Taiwan, chief executive Jensen Huang has been "shuttling back and forth" between the US and China trying to limit the damage. Meanwhile, Nvidia has slapped price increases of between 5 and 10 per cent on its gaming GPUs and up to 15 per cent on AI gear.

The outfit is feeling the sting of a $5.5 billion hole in its quarterly earnings after US export restrictions banned sales of key AI chips like the H20 in China. To protect its margins, Nvidia has reportedly hiked official prices for nearly everything, with partners dutifully bumping their own tags to match.

Digitimes claims Nvidia's end-of-month financials should still "deliver excellent profit results," largely because cloud service providers outside China are throwing money at AI chips like there is no tomorrow.

The RTX 5090, already absurdly priced at launch, saw channel pricing double almost instantly. Digitimes reported prices jumping overnight from around NT$90,000 (€2,600) to NT$100,000 (€2,890) after the export ban. Other RTX 50 series cards saw five to ten per cent rises, with AI chips like the H200 and B200 not far behind.

Server makers have followed suit, slapping up to 15 per cent extra on their Nvidia-based boxes, blaming the costs of moving Blackwell chip production to TSMC's US factories. Supply chain sources said the shift has made everything more expensive, from raw materials to shipping.

There is vague hope that the hikes could ease after the US and China agreed to a new deal pausing reciprocal tariffs for 90 days and cutting levies by 115 per cent. However, given how keen Nvidia and its partners are to keep any extra cash, it will likely be a long wait before punters see any real price relief.

It may not be so bad if Nvidia kept its chips available for gamers and the great unwashed. However, these remain in short supply and usually have to be bought at a high mark up from scalpers.