- The prices of consumer-grade graphics cards in the Huaqiangbei market in Shenzhen, China, have seen a significant increase, with the market price of NVIDIA's (NVDA:US) high-end RTX 5090 series rising from approximately 20,000 RMB to around 35,000 RMB.
- Hardware production capacity and key components have been prioritized for the demand in artificial intelligence (AI) computing power, directly driving up the upstream production costs of consumer-grade graphics cards, leading mainstream graphics card brands to adopt warehouse closure strategies and suspend bulk shipments.
- Channel merchants are facing a situation where quotes change daily or even multiple times a day, with the spot market showing a mismatch between supply and demand, temporarily suppressing the transaction turnover efficiency in the midstream of the industry chain.
Computing Power Siphon Effect Tightens Supply
Due to the accelerated shift of upstream chip manufacturing resources towards AI computing power infrastructure, the production of consumer-grade graphics cards is constrained by capacity allocation, leading to a sharp reduction in supply in the terminal market. Taking NVIDIA's (NVDA:US) product line as an example, the price of the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB version has risen from 2,350 RMB to 3,400 RMB, an increase of over 44%. This prioritization of computing power demand indicates that the technology hardware industry chain is undergoing a structural reallocation of resources.
Spot Channels Show Supply-Demand Mismatch
The quotation system in the Huaqiangbei electronics market in Shenzhen is experiencing discontinuities, with most channel merchants reporting frequent short-term price changes, making it impossible to issue fixed quotes. In the high-end product line, the price of the RTX 5070 Ti series has risen to over 8,000 RMB, limiting transaction turnover speed. The tightening of spot throughput reflects the obstruction of midstream channel capital recovery models, significantly raising short-term market watchfulness.
Manufacturers' Warehouse Closures Drive Valuation Reassessment
Due to rising costs and changes in supply-demand relationships, leading graphics card brand factories have successively adopted warehouse closure strategies, suspending bulk shipments to channel merchants to reassess factory pricing. The unit price of the top model RTX 5090 has risen to about 35,000 RMB, greatly expanding the premium space for spot goods. The upstream manufacturers' suspension of shipments further increases the risk preference and inventory reassessment expectations in the secondary market.
Divergence Between Consumer and Computing Power Markets
The divergence between computing power hardware and traditional consumer electronics demand is deepening, with the marginal pricing power of high computing power products rapidly shifting towards the B-end AI computing power market. Although consumer-end individual buyers are clearly under pressure, funds continue to flow into AI computing power industry chain-related targets, driving the overall risk premium of the sector upward. This transmission mechanism highlights the shift in profit focus of the global semiconductor supply chain under the wave of computing power.
