The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced today that it has fined Nvidia $5.5 million for "inadequate disclosures" regarding how many of its graphics cards were sold to crypto miners.
In a press release issued today, the SEC notes that during the 2018 fiscal year, Nvidia failed to disclose that crypto mining was "a significant element of its material revenue growth" regarding the sale of its graphics cards.
"NVIDIA’s disclosure failures deprived investors of critical information to evaluate the company’s business in a key market," SEC's Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit head Kristina Littman said in the press release. "All issuers, including those that pursue opportunities involving emerging technology, must ensure that their disclosures are timely, complete, and accurate."
Between 2017 and 2018, Nvidia's GPUs were in high demand for crypto miners, which caused a completely separate gaming GPU shortage. The SEC notes that due to the demand of its gaming GPUs, the agency felt that Nvidia was misleading on how crypto mining played a part in that specific division's growth during the 2018 fiscal year.
When the industry faced another GPU shortage at the start of the new decade, Nvidia's RTX 30 series was in short supply and high demand. To try and combat the issues, Nvidia limited the hash rate of its graphics card and even released a line of CMP graphics cards designed for crypto mining to circumvent the shortages.
Although the supply of gaming GPUs seems to be better in recent months, the pricing of these cards is still inflated, with prices marked up hundreds of dollars more than their initial debut MSRP.
Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
