In brief: Nvidia claimed they were masters of the crypto GPU market and that any drop in demand wouldn't hurt their business. It did and their stock is down 50% which means many investors aren't happy. They are facing numerous class action lawsuits over their statements.
As anyone who was trying to build a computer during the cryptocurrency mining boom knows, GPU prices often follow trends in the crypto markets. When Bitcoin prices were up, GPU prices skyrocketed and cards were difficult to come by. This left some investors worrying about what would happen once prices and demand fell back down.
During the boom, Nvidia put out a statement saying that they were "masters at managing" the market and that any drop in demand from crypto would not negatively impact their business. However, when the crypto demand went away, it did affect their business and investors aren't happy. Nvidia was left with massive oversupply and the market was flooded with used cards. Nvidia's stock is now down more than 50% and it is still plummeting.
The Schall Law Firm is representing numerous investors in a class action suit. It alleges that Nvidia made false claims to investors about their ability to maintain demand and withstand any drops in the crypto market.
The suit is really only meant for serious investors though since they are looking for those who have lost more than $100,000 since the crash. They claim:
According to the Complaint, the Company made false and misleading statements to the market. NVIDIA touted its ability to monitor the cryptocurrency market and make rapid changes to its business as necessary. The Company claimed to be “masters at managing our channel, and we understand the channel very well.” NVIDIA also claimed to the market that any drop off in demand for its GPUs amongst cryptocurrency miners would not negatively impact the Company’s business because of strong demand for GPUs from the gaming market. Based on these facts, the Company’s public statements were false and materially misleading throughout the class period. When the market learned the truth about NVIDIA, investors suffered damages.
It will be difficult to prove exactly how much of an effect the crypto market had on all of this since there are numerous other factors than influence prices. For example, the Trump Administration's trade war with China, companies like Google, Apple, and Amazon developing their own chips in-house, and upcoming launches from Intel and AMD.
While AMD has certainly been hit by the slump as well, they have also seen large growth in their CPU market which will help offset it. Nvidia, however, is primarily a graphics card company.
Nvidia is facing at least three other class action lawsuits on similar grounds, so 2019 could be very rough for them.
