The graphics card manufacturer rejects the publication of internal company documents.

The lawyers of the large graphics card manufacturer Nvidia refuse to give the company’s shareholders access to internal documents that stem from the “crypto hype” of 2017 and 2018

In a corresponding hearing before an American court, the Nvidia attorneys justified their position on September 17th by saying that the plaintiffs had shown “insufficient need” for the documents to be released.

In the process, a civil class action lawsuit is being heard in which Nvidia is accused of failing to truthfully inform its investors about the level of its own profits from selling graphics cards to crypto miners during the crypto hype in 2017 depended on.

Lawyer Patrick Gibbs criticizes the fact that the plaintiffs present their claims “only in paper form” and do not comment personally in court. In addition, evidence has shown that some of the investors involved in the class action still own shares in Nvidia and therefore have a self-interest in the outcome of the process.

After the hearing, the court asked both parties to explain again in writing why the documents should or should not be released

The indictment states that Nvidia “made false and misleading public statements about internal calculations, forecasts and profit prospects”. At the same time, Nvidia reportedly sold $ 147 million in shares at artificially inflated value.

The shareholders accuse the company of only using the sales figures for the graphics processor Crypto SKU, which was specially made for crypto miners in May 2017, as a basis for assessing demand from miners.

During the same period, the company had made an estimated $ 1 billion in profit from the sale of the popular GeForce graphics processor, which Nvidia attributes to gaming / computer games customers for 2017. The plaintiffs suspect, however, that the increased sales of graphics cards can be attributed to additional demand from crypto miners, as there was a real “gold rush” for crypto currencies during this time and these had climbed to their previous record high.

When the “crypto hype” subsided, however, Nvidia was no longer able to sell the many newly built gaming graphics processors that had been produced on the basis of the “incorrectly reported” demand by players. As a result, Nvidia shares suffered a crash of almost 30% in 2018.