Nvidia is one of the largest manufacturers of graphics processing units or video card processors agreed With the US Stock Exchange (SEC) to pay $5.5 million, or roughly $2 billion, for failing to properly inform its shareholders.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched an investigation in 2019 and found that the company was deliberately silent about the impact of cryptocurrency mining on its revenue for 2017. According to the supervisory announcement, “the chip designer failed to disclose that cryptocurrency mining was a significant component of significant revenue growth in Graphics processing units designed and marketed for computer games. The company’s omission “deprived investors of critical information needed to evaluate the company’s business in key markets,” Christina Littmann, an official with the Securities and Exchange Commission, said. Nvidia has not commented on the news.
Cryptocurrencies based on blockchain technology can be accessed using a complex and computationally intensive IT process, “mining”, which requires powerful hardware. GPUs are particularly well suited to this process, which is why cryptocurrency miners try to purchase many combinations of video cards that were originally designed for everyday computing activities, such as gaming. High demand outweighed the prices of video cards (this phenomenon we wrote about earlier), which was evident in Nvidia’s earnings as well.
The Securities and Exchange Commission believes that the company knew that cryptocurrency mining had led to a significant increase in sales of the company’s gaming business, but did not disclose this. In addition, Nvidia has released statements about the impact of cryptocurrency mining on other companies, giving the impression that the gaming business has not been significantly affected by mining.
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