Nvidia Lied About How Many GPUs It Sold To Crypto Miners

screenrant.com:

Nvidia recently received a $5.5 million fine from the Securities And Exchange Commission for lying about the impact of cryptocurrency mining on its revenue. Apart from making GPUs for gamers,Nvidia is also known for its focus on developing Artificial Intelligence software and its accompanying hardware. However, the sale of GPUs is still the main driving force that brings in the most profit for the chipmaker.

Nvidia mainly sells GPUs to gamers, OEMs and data centers. Gamers prefer Nvidia’s RTX 3000 and 2000 series desktop GPUs or a gaming laptop powered by the same graphics processors. For AI research, Nvidia sells specialized integrated software and hardware system like DGX-1 which drastically speeds up the machine learning process. Crypto miners are another group of people with whom Nvidia has had a profitable relationship as well. In 2017, Ethereum prices rose significantly from below $10 to around $800, making crypto miners an even bigger customer of the GPU maker.

Related: NVIDIA's Next-Gen GPU Plans Leak After Cyber Attack

Crypto miners capitalized on this boom by buying graphics cards in droves from chip makers like Nvidia. For reference, an average Cryptominer buys more GPUs than an average gamer, which resulted in Nvidia’s profit increasing drastically. However, despite being aware of this information, Nvidia knowingly did not disclose that a considerable chunk of its earnings are due to crypto mining and not because of gamers buying more GPUs. According to Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit, Kristina Littman, "NVIDIA’s disclosure failures deprived investors of critical information to evaluate the company’s business in a key market."

Nvidia failed to reveal the major source of