[SMM Computing Power Express] Two buyers each seek 128 H100 units; suppliers question authenticity

SMM learned that on July 8, Tencent WorkBuddy’s inference computing resource consumption peaked due to the launch of the Hy3 large model, with the afternoon queuing rate once exceeding 50%, and the team completed emergency capacity expansion that day. This computing resource crunch directly stemmed from the exponential growth in user scale — WorkBuddy’s monthly active users had reached 20 million and daily active users had exceeded 13 million. Unlike the “one-time heavy computation consumption” on the training side, inference computing consumption is linearly linked to the number of users: each interaction by every user generates continuous token consumption, and the daily office scenarios (document processing, code generation, agent tasks) of 13 million users create high-frequency, massive inference computing demands. Data from the OpenRouter platform shows that in May 2026, Chinese models accounted for six of the top ten spots in token calls, and domestic model inference traffic is rapidly catching up with mainstream North American models.

July 8: 32 units of spot H100 in Inner Mongolia quoted at 80,000 yuan per month, 64 units in Xinjiang to go online in August; two large orders of 128 H100 units surfaced, suppliers said "no one in the market can supply"; operators bid 65,000–68,000 yuan per month for H100, a price spread of over 10,000 yuan from the market; RTX 4090 24G traded at 7,000 yuan, near the low end

SMM learns that an intelligent computing cloud service provider recently transacted a 4090 24G eight-card server at 7,000 yuan per unit per month. According to SMM's tracking, the current market quotation range for 4090 servers is 6,800-8,800 yuan per unit per month, with the transaction price close to the low end of the range. The service provider said, "No choice." Previously, channel feedback indicated that scattered rental platforms were willing to offer about 6,000-6,300 yuan for renting 4090 servers, and the price spread between sellers and buyers is still in a tug of war.