Nvidia’s GPU sales finally ‘normalize’ after its crypto-mining craze

Chipmaker Nvidia says its business has finally returned to normal after its cryptocurrency mining hangover has subsided.

In its latest quarterly financial report, published yesterday, Nvidia posted 17 percent growth in revenue – from $2.22 billion to $2.58 billion – over the last fiscal quarter. Across the same period in the previous financial year, the GPU giant posted revenue of $3.12 billion – a figure largely influenced by increased demand from cryptocurrency miners.

Speaking on a conference call, Nvidia’s chief financial officer Collette Kress told analysts: “Essentially our business is normalized.”

“We’ve reached normalized levels through the last couple of quarters and this quarter, just very similar to what we will see going forward,” Kress added.

Nvidia’s $3.12 billion revenue posted last year largely came as a result from demand for its gaming GPU chips used by cryptocurrency miners. Demand that Nvidia says largely “exceeded expectations.”

However, the boom in revenue was short-lived. Cryptocurrency prices tumbled and as the end of the year closed in, demand from miners dried up. In November 2018, Nvidia posted disappointing results and forecast a bleak outlook for cryptocurrency mining demand.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said cryptocurrency mining would likely add “no contributions” to bottom line in the coming months.

With the latest news, it appears he was correct.

Even so, sales of GPUs (graphics processing units) still make up the majority of Nvidia’s business, generating 81 percent of total revenue.

While sales of desktop GPUs are down, the company cited increased demand for gaming laptop chips as one of the main drivers for its quarter on quarter growth.

Indeed, the cryptocurrency mining boom may be over, but investors will be able to rest easy again as Nvidia’s earnings per share (diluted) rose 41 percent over the previous fiscal quarter, from $0.64 to $0.90 per share.