The Supreme Court dismissed CPU juggernaut Nvidia’s motion to drop an investor-led class-action lawsuit based on the company's alleged understating of crypto mining-related GPU sales.
The United States Supreme Court dismissed Nvidia’s motion with no explanation in a Dec. 11 ruling. The decision means that the lawsuit will continue moving forward, even though it was initially dismissed by a California district court back in March 2021.
"We would have preferred a decision on the merits affirming the trial court’s dismissal of the case, but we are fully prepared to continue our defense," an Nvidia spokesperson told Decrypt. "Consistent and predictable standards in securities litigation are essential to protecting shareholders and ensuring a strong economy, and we remain committed to supporting them.”
The ruling follows U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) senior lawyer Theodore Weiman saying that the lawsuit should be allowed to proceed by the Supreme Court. The comments were included in an amicus brief from the Department of Justice and the SEC aiming to support investor allegations.
“The judgment of the court of appeals should be affirmed,” the document’s conclusion read.
The lawsuit was initially filed in 2018 by a group of Nvidia shareholders who claimed that the company hid over $1 billion worth of GPU sales made to cryptocurrency miners and that the company’s CEO downplayed the volume of crypto mining-related sales.
In the first quarter of 2021, Nvidia made $155 million from cryptocurrency mining-related sales alone. That year, the company launched a line of dedicated CMP cards to cater to the crypto-mining market and unsuccessfully attempted to throttle the mining performance of other new cards.
Despite the company's great profit from crypto, the firm’s chief technology officer, Michael Kagan, said in late March 2023 that crypto does not “bring anything useful for society.”
The comments came as the GPU manufacturer invested heavily in developing products specifically aimed at artificial intelligence (AI) development rather than crypto mining. November reports indicate that Nvidia has seen record-breaking third-quarter revenue and earnings for fiscal 2025, primarily driven by the firm’s dominance in the AI and accelerated computing space.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.