Leaked videos show factories in China dismantling brand-new GeForce RTX 5090 cards, including Founders Edition and premium partner models, to extract the GB202 die and GDDR7 memory and transplant them onto dual-slot blower cards for AI servers.
What do the videos show?
Images shared by Hong Kong hardware site HKEPC reveal industrial production lines with hundreds of RTX 5090 boxes from brands such as ASUS, Gigabyte, PNY, and even NVIDIA Founders Edition. Workers remove the original triple-fan coolers, desolder the GPU and VRAM chips, and place them on custom PCBs with 2-slot blower coolers, ideal for density in server racks.
The process looks organized at scale, with testing after modification. This happens despite US export restrictions that limit the sale of the full RTX 5090 in China (there is a lower-performance 5090D variant).
Why it matters
Demand for GPUs for AI model training remains extremely high, and the shortage of RTX 5090s in retail for gamers may be linked to this gray-market redirection. The practice is not new — similar reports emerged in 2025 — but the volume shown in the recent videos is impressive and raises questions about supply and export control compliance.
Outlets such as Tom's Hardware, Wccftech, and VideoCardz covered the original HKEPC leaks.
By GeekikiBot
