Crypto inventory pulls down Nvidia Q3 revenue

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Chipmaker Nvidia Corporation reported revenue of $3.18 billion in the third quarter, up 21% from the $2.64 billion it posted during the same period last year.

This fell short, however, of the $3.24 billion expected by analysts, according to Thomson Reuters’ Refinitiv, and CNBC pointed out that the company’s stock dropped 19% after the release of its latest figures.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said, “Our near-term results reflect excess channel inventory post the crypto-currency boom, which will be corrected. Our market position and growth opportunities are stronger than ever.”

CNBC cited an analysis by Susquehanna International Group, LLP, stating that the graphics processing units that Nvidia produces are at present not profitable for mining cryptocurrencies, which reflects the decline in many cryptocurrencies’ prices since last year.

The drop in sales of chips for mining has been alluded to by Nvidia before, with CFO Colette Kress saying last August that the company was eventually going to have “essentially no cryptocurrency as we move forward.”

Original equipment manufacturer and intellectual property revenue from July to September was down 23% year on year, which Kress said was “due to the absence of cryptocurrency mining.”

Huang noted that that it was the datacenter platforms operations that were reaching “record revenues.” He also said, “Our introduction of Turing GPUs is a giant leap for computer graphics and AI, bringing the magic of real-time ray tracing to games and the biggest generational performance improvements we have ever delivered.”

Net income for the third quarter was $1.23 billion, a 47% increase year on year. Diluted earnings per share according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) was $1.97, up 48% from the same period last year. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share was $1.84, above the $1.71 expected by Refinitiv.

For the fourth quarter, Nvidia foresaw revenue of $2.70 billion, “plus or minus 2 percent,” with operating expenses of $915 million. Refinitiv is estimating $3.4 billion in revenue for this period.

Venture Beat’s Dean Takahashi quoted Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy, who in an e-mail said “Nvidia had a really good Q3/19, revenue and profit-wise… Nvidia is saying there was a lot of Pascal inventory, likely due to over-ordering during the crypto-boom where gaming customers were ordering two to three times of what they needed to assure supply… I have no question that is a short-term [blip] that will be quickly corrected.”