A U.S. federal judge has certified a securities-fraud class action against Nvidia and its CEO Jensen Huang, allowing a broad group of shareholders to proceed with claims that the chipmaker concealed how much of its GPU revenue during 2017–2018 came from cryptocurrency miners rather than gamers.
Nvidia's Crypto Revenue Claims
Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. issued the ruling Wednesday in a California federal court. The class covers investors who bought Nvidia shares between Aug. 10, 2017, and Nov. 15, 2018.
Shareholders first sued the company in 2018, alleging that roughly $1 billion in crypto-linked GPU sales were misclassified under the gaming division. Internal emails cited in the case suggest executives knew the stock price was inflated by those characterizations.
Plaintiffs say much of the mining demand ran through Nvidia's GeForce gaming GPUs, but the revenue was booked as gaming income — leaving the company far more exposed to crypto market swings than investors realized.
The situation unraveled in November 2018, when CFO Colette Kress said gaming revenue had fallen short because post-boom inventory was clearing slower than expected.
Nvidia shares dropped roughly 28–29% on the disclosure. In 2022, the SEC fined the company $5.5 million for inadequate crypto-mining disclosures. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2021, revived on appeal, survived a bid to reach the U.S. Supreme Court, and now moves forward as a certified class action. A case management conference is set for Apr. 21.
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Jensen Huang's Internal Emails
The judge pointed to an internal email from a Nvidia vice president as particularly significant. In the message, the executive responded to a question from Huang by noting that one reason the market was not pricing in a larger miss was partly tied to the company's earlier public comments about containing crypto exposure within a separate business line.
The court said it could not conclude there was no price impact given that one of Nvidia's own executives acknowledged the stock remained elevated because of those statements.
For traders holding NVDA, the certified class action introduces headline risk to one of the market's most widely held AI-related stocks.
Any ruling or settlement could pressure valuations.
For the broader crypto sector, the case underscores that opaque accounting around mining revenue cycles can resurface years later, potentially raising disclosure standards ahead of the next Bitcoin (BTC) bull market.
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