Nvidia Reports 'Substantial Decline' in GPU Sales to Crypto Miners

Nvidia is reporting a "substantial decline" in revenue as a result of declining sales to cryptocurrency miners.

In an announcement of its second quarter earnings Thursday afternoon, the graphics card maker's CFO, Colette Kress, stated that while "GPU business revenue was $2.66 billion, up 40 percent from a year earlier," it was "down 4 percent sequentially."

At the time, she said that record performance in gaming, professional visualization and datacenter services "offset" a substantial decline in the sale of cryptocurrency GPUs.

She added:

"Our revenue outlook had anticipated cryptocurrency-specific products declining to approximately $100 million, while actual crypto-specific product revenue was $18 million. Whereas we had previously anticipated cryptocurrency to be meaningful for the year, we are now projecting no contributions going forward."

The chip producer has seen GPU demand rise over the last year, largely due to cryptocurrency miners. Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said in March that the company needed to ramp up its production to ensure that both miners and gamers had sufficient graphics cards.

That being said, the company has downplayed the actual impact mining demand has had on its financials. Kress said it was "hard to quantify" how much of its business came from miners versus traditional markets.

During a previous earnings call, an Nvidia representative said the company modeled cryptocurrency profits "approximately flat," adding that much of the demand for its graphics cards came from the number of "amazing games that are out right now."

Nvidia image via jejim / Shutterstock