{"id":1489,"date":"2018-05-11T06:10:19","date_gmt":"2018-05-11T13:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tradersnation.com\/?p=1489"},"modified":"2018-05-11T06:11:17","modified_gmt":"2018-05-11T13:11:17","slug":"nvidia-made-more-from-crypto-mining-than-amd-but-expects-a-bigger-drop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tradersnation.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/11\/nvidia-made-more-from-crypto-mining-than-amd-but-expects-a-bigger-drop\/","title":{"rendered":"Nvidia made more from crypto mining than AMD, but expects a bigger drop"},"content":{"rendered":"

CEO Jensen Huang expects the nearly $300 million in crypto revenue to decline by two-thirds this quarter<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

By Max A. Cherney – <\/b>Tech reporter<\/p>\n

Nvidia Corp. received a bigger bump from crypto mining than rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. in the most recent quarter, but Chief Executive Jensen Huang predicts a larger drop-off is on the way.<\/p>\n

Nvidia NVDA, -2.54%<\/span><\/a><\/span> \u00a0reported $289 million in sales of cards built by third-party manufacturers specifically for mining cryptocurrencies<\/a> in its first-quarter results Thursday afternoon<\/a>, which caused the revenue segment that includes those cards to jump nearly 150% year over year. In an interview with MarketWatch, Huang said that some of its gaming cards\u2014which produced revenue of $1.72 billion, up almost 68%\u2014could be used for mining as well, but are not usually purchased solely for that purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no way to tell [if some crypto sales were included in gaming] because a lot of gamers when they aren\u2019t playing games, they\u2019re doing a little mining,\u201d Huang said in a conversation after Nvidia\u2019s conference call. \u201cThe reason why they bought it is for gaming, but while they\u2019re not gaming \u2014 while they\u2019re at school, at work, or in bed \u2014 they\u2019ll turn it on and do a little mining.There\u2019s nothing wrong with that, I think that\u2019s fine, but the real reason why they bought it is for gaming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nvidia and AMD AMD, -1.57%<\/span><\/a><\/span> \u00a0have received a lot of investor attention as a potential play on the cryptocurrency market, as miners are known to use the chip makers\u2019 graphics-processing units, or GPUs, to mine digital coins like ether ETHUSD, -8.39%<\/span><\/a><\/span> \u00a0and monero XMRUSD, -10.22%<\/span><\/a><\/span> \u00a0. Graphics cards used for gaming have been scarce in the past year, and many blame crypto miners and believe that they have helped push demand and prices for the equipment higher.<\/p>\n

AMD said last month in its earnings discussion that crypto mining was about 10% of its overall business<\/a>, which collected $1.65 billion in total revenue in the quarter, suggesting about $165 million in crypto sales. Chief Executive Lisa Su made similar comments to Huang about gamers also using the cards for mining, and said that the gains from crypto sales are more sustainable than a previous boom that petered out and led to a flood of cards on the secondary market.<\/p>\n

\u2018The reason why they bought [Nvidia cards] is for gaming, but while they\u2019re not gaming \u2014 while they\u2019re at school, at work, or in bed \u2014 they\u2019ll turn it on and do a little mining.There\u2019s nothing wrong with that…\u2019<\/p>\n