Nvidia Reports Second-Quarter Revenue Highs, Crypto Mining Cards Underwhelm

Graphics card producer Nvidia generated a record revenue of $6.51 billion, according to its second-quarter financial results.

Exceeding Wall Street expectations of $6.3 billion, this figure is up 68% from a year earlier and up 15% from the previous quarter. Out of that revenue, the company generated $1.5 billion in earnings. This was largely bolstered by sales in gaming, data center technology, and professional visualization equipment platforms. 

The company highlighted a record 85% growth in its gaming segment to $3.06 billion. It largely accredited this bump to the introduction of the new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti gaming chips. These chips were newly designed to have their cryptocurrency mining capabilities compromised, being marketed exclusively to gamers. 

Underwhelming crypto results

To complement this, Nvidia also began producing cryptocurrency-mining processors (CMPs). These chips are less sophisticated than graphics cards and optimal for mining. The company also decided to create crypto-exclusive products after experiencing a boom-and-bust shock in 2017 that severely affected its valuation. However, sales in this crypto segment fell below expectations of $400 million, only achieving $266 million, over 33% lower than expectations. 

These results are significant for the future of the company’s CMP development. The company was hoping to gauge how much exposure it has to cryptocurrency mining; another outcome of the product segmentation. However, due to the underwhelming result, Nvidia CFO Colette Kress said that it expects a “minimal contribution” from its CMP sales going forward.

Exceeded expectations

Earlier this week, Kress reiterated the $400 million crypto chip forecast the company had predicted in the spring. This would have been more than doubled its first-quarter revenue of $155 million. 

Meanwhile, BMO Capital Markets analyst Ambrish Srivastava had expected a crypto revenue of $450 million. Indeed, his estimate for the first quarter of $650 million was also well above the $155 million Nvidia reported solely for its mining chips.