Recently, a significant quantity of meticulously packaged NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards, arriving on full pallets, made an unexpected appearance outside a Chinese company. This occurrence has cast doubt on the efficacy of the U.S. export control measures. These graphics cards, bearing the brands of MSI and Gigabyte, were conspicuously missing the 'v2' label, which had previously been approved for exports to China. This omission strongly implies that they are the restricted original versions.

As NVIDIA's premier graphics card, the RTX 5090 was specifically targeted by the U.S. government's export control restrictions. Its inclusion was primarily due to its formidable AI computing capabilities, which led to a prohibition on its sale to China. In response to this ban, NVIDIA rolled out specialized versions, namely the RTX 5090D and subsequent v2 models. These variants were engineered to comply with export requirements by curbing their AI computing power and memory bandwidth.

However, the emergence of the original RTX 5090 graphics cards in China clearly indicates that they have circumvented official channels and entered the market through unauthorized means. In light of this development, brands like MSI promptly issued statements to distance themselves from these graphics cards. They underscored that they have neither officially sold nor distributed the RTX 5090 in China, and that any units of this model found in the country did not originate from authorized sources.

This incident not only underscores the vulnerabilities inherent in global supply chains when confronted with export controls but also highlights the robust demand and substantial profit incentives associated with high-performance AI chips in regions subject to restrictions.