Nvidia Agrees to Pay $5.5 Million to Settle SEC Probe

Nvidia Corp has agreed to pay $5.5 million to resolve a regulatory investigation that failed to properly disclose the impact of encryption on the sale of high-performance chips designed for computer games.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Nvidia's 2018 graphics processor (GPU) sales were significantly increased by consumers who bought them to mine new units of cryptocurrencies.

The SEC said that Nvidia kept investors in dark about the fact for more than two quarters, depriving shareholders of information required to understand its future financial performance. 

Nvidia, based in Santa Clara, California, resolved the SEC's allegations without admitting or denying the claims. A company representative has declined to comment. Nvidia's share fell about 2% on Friday.

Nvidia said in the security filing that crypto mining is an important part of the product sales subsegment, but the reporting did not properly address whether this trend will continue, fluctuate, or stop in the future.

According to its most recent annual report released in March, Nvidia is now making it difficult to estimate the impact of crypto mining on businesses with a reasonable degree of accuracy due to crypto price fluctuations and evolving standards of technology and government regulation.