Leaked Video Shows China Taking Apart Thousands of RTX 5090s and Turning Them Into Zombie AI Servers
Futurism ·
Consumer prices have soared well past $10,000 in the US. The post Leaked Video Shows China Taking Apart Thousands of RTX 5090s and Turning Them Into Zombie AI Servers appeared first on Futurism .
The rise of AI has caused the price of PC components to skyrocket, infuriating anybody looking to make a new purchase or upgrade their gear. Graphics cards have become such a hot commodity that they’ve become completely unaffordable — and higher-end one’s, like Nvidia’s sought-after RTX 5090, are hard to even find in stock.
One reason for the price and availability issues may be industrial facilities in China buying up the workhorse cards and repurposing them for AI, as Tom’s Hardware reports . A video making the rounds on social media shows the inside of one of these facilities, a major operation that involves swapping out of the circuit board and fitting on a turbine-style cooler.
China: All your 5090's are belong to us. (The reason you can't find one for under $7k is because they're all in China, being stripped and rebuilt as blower cards for AI inference and training server racks. This is a national security failure, BTW. Nvidia and USGov should GIVE… pic.twitter.com/kXaHgEfdJt
The goal is to “meet the high-density arrangement requirements of AI server chassis,” as IT media news website HKEPC noted , with each card occupying less space than a consumer-grade version. Where these cards end up being shipped to, made opaque by an industry of middlemen, remains unclear at best.
Meanwhile, individual consumers who aren’t interested in purchasing entire racks to run zombie AI servers are out of luck. An off-the-shelf RTX 5090 can cost well past an eye-watering $10,000 — multiples higher than its official MSRP of $1,999.
Nvidia has maintained that the RTX 5090 is “alive,” and that despite widespread rumors, production hasn’t ceased. However, earlier this month, Nvidia senior vice president Jeff Fisher acknowledged that the card is supply-chain “constrained .” Even Nvidia’s own online marketplace doesn’t currently list the card.
The latest footage of Chinese repurposing operations perfectly captures the current state of the electronics market, with desperate companies fighting over existing stock to cash in on the AI gold rush.
The losers are as apparent as ever: PC builders and gamers, who are left to scrounge for years-old components that aren’t powerful enough to be caught up in the chaos.
More on graphics cards: Nvidia Is Facing Nasty Allegations
The post Leaked Video Shows China Taking Apart Thousands of RTX 5090s and Turning Them Into Zombie AI Servers appeared first on Futurism .