Overview
- Customers buying prebuilt PCs with NVIDIA RTX 5090 cards have been asked to present government ID and sign a purchaser declaration that the product will not leave the United States, a practice first reported on Friday.
- The declaration collects name, contact details, photo ID and the claimed end user, and explicitly states a 'NO EXPORT' policy that could let the retailer tie a card's serial number back to a buyer.
- Micro Center's form closely follows 2025 Bureau of Industry and Security anti-diversion guidance but does not appear to be a federally mandated retail form and the chain has not issued a confirmed national policy statement.
- Reporters note the checks raise the cost and risk of casual diversion but cannot stop established grey‑market tactics such as theft, overseas reshipping, or dismantling cards to sell components.
- The steps come against a backdrop of U.S. export controls on advanced GPUs that began in 2022, NVIDIA's China-specific 5090 D variants, and strong scarcity that has pushed buyers toward expensive prebuilt systems as a route to obtain high-end AI-capable cards.