Reports indicate that some AI companies are purchasing standard retail versions of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 in bulk to assemble multi-GPU servers. Due to supply and demand dynamics, quoted prices for the RTX 5090 on certain retail channels have reportedly surpassed $5,000, more than double its initial launch price of $1,999.
Recently released photos show brand-new, boxed RTX 5090s being unboxed at AI server assembly facilities. Instead of adopting NVIDIA's RTX PRO 6000 series designed for professional workstations and data centers, or dedicated accelerator cards, these companies are installing standard retail RTX 5090s directly into multi-GPU AI devices.
The RTX 5090 was already difficult to purchase at its suggested retail price. Now, demand from AI server assembly is further diverting retail graphics card supplies, with listed prices on some product pages reportedly rising above $5,000.
A similar wave of bulk purchases occurred during the cryptocurrency boom. At that time, miners bought up GeForce graphics cards in large quantities, prompting NVIDIA to release Lite Hash Rate models that limited mining performance without affecting gaming specs. However, this restriction was completely bypassed within about a year.
This surge in graphics card demand stems from AI computing rather than cryptocurrency mining, but the retail market is once again seeing a significant shift of products toward non-gaming uses. Currently, retail quotes for some RTX 5090 units have exceeded $5,000, significantly higher than the initial launch price of $1,999.