A federal judge in California has certified an investor class in a securities lawsuit alleging Nvidia and CEO Jensen Huang misled shareholders about how much of the company’s gaming revenue during the 2017–2018 crypto mining boom came from GPU sales to cryptocurrency miners. US District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. granted class certification in a March 25 order for investors who bought Nvidia stock between Aug. 10, 2017, and Nov. 15, 2018.
Judge Gilliam stressed that certification is a procedural step that does not determine whether the company’s statements were fraudulent. The certification centered largely on “price impact” — whether the alleged misstatements affected Nvidia’s stock price. The court declined to exclude the plaintiffs’ damages model based on out-of-pocket losses and permitted a statistical event study that analyzes Nvidia’s share-price movement around key disclosure dates.
Plaintiffs contend Nvidia and Huang understated how much of the company’s rapidly rising gaming revenue depended on GPU sales to crypto miners, allegedly concealing more than $1 billion in crypto-related sales. According to the complaint, the truth began to surface following Nvidia’s Aug. 16, 2018 earnings call and guidance cut, when the stock fell about 4.9%, and again after a Nov. 15, 2018 revenue warning, when shares dropped roughly 28.5% over two trading days. The suit was first filed in 2018; the current amended complaint was filed in 2020.
In 2022 Nvidia paid a $5.5 million penalty and accepted a cease-and-desist order related to disclosures about crypto mining’s impact on its gaming GPU business. The US Supreme Court in December 2024 declined to intervene, leaving a Ninth Circuit ruling intact that allowed the shareholder case to proceed.
A case conference is set for April 21, 2026, at 2:00 p.m. Pacific, to be held by public Zoom webinar. Nvidia told Cointelegraph that investors who bought the stock in 2017–2018 “have done incredibly well, as our corporate strategy unfolded as we consistently predicted,” and said the company will address the complaint in court.