Nvidia can’t tell if crypto or gaming is wiping out its stock

Graphics giant Nvidia is eyeing another tilt at the crypto market with a product line geared specifically toward miners.

Speaking at a JP Morgan conference last week, Nvidia’s chief financial officer Colette Kress floated resurrecting its CMP product line — a range of GPUs without graphical outputs — if the demand is there.

“[…] If crypto demand begins or if we see a meaningful amount, we can also use that opportunity to restart the CMP product line to address ongoing mining demand,” said Kress.

However, with gamers and miners alike clearing out global inventories over the past two months, Nvidia has a hard time determining exactly how much crypto contributes to its bottom line.

In particular, miners have been hoarding Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080 chips. PCGamer detailed one Ethereum mining outfit running 78 of the cards — worth an estimated $100,000.

But even after paying more on the reseller’s market, the operation would reportedly turn a profit in around 10 months if prices stayed steady.

[Read more: Crypto miners wipe out GPU stocks (again)]

“We don’t have visibility on how much of the GeForce RTX 30-series end demand comes from mining, so, we don’t believe it’s a big part of our business today,” said Kress. “Gaming demand is very strong, and we think that’s larger than our current supply.”

If it were to go ahead, the plan would be Nvidia’s second foray into crypto-specific chips.

Last time, Nvidia ended up sued for misleading investors over the relationship between its gaming chips and the crypto boom that ran through to 2018.