In 2017, Nvidia was the major player on the GPU side of Bitcoin Mining. But even they could not predict the high demands from the minors. At the end of the Q4, which was on 28-Jan-2018, Nvidia reported revenue of $2.91 billion, up by 34% from previous years $2.17 billion. They stated that this level of financial performance would not have been possible without the strong demands coming in from Cryptocurrency miners buying Graphics Cards in Bulk.
When interviewed, Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress stated, “the overall contribution of cryptocurrency to our business remains difficult to quantify, we believe it was a higher percentage of revenue than the prior quarter.” This being said, he also quoted, “ our main focus remains on our core gaming market, as cryptocurrency trends will likely remain volatile.” The company is reportedly modeled crypto approximately flat for the next quarter.
Adding to Kress’s statement, we have founder and CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang. He exclaimed his profound joy for the excellent year the company has had, and further stated, “In a powerful sign of our progress, attendees at Nvidia’s GPU Technology Conferences reached 22,000, up tenfold in five years, as software developers working in AI, self-driving cars, and a broad range of other fields continued to discover the acceleration and money-saving benefits of our GPU computing platform.”
Nevertheless, Stock Market Analysts were able to estimate this impact. For example, RBC Capital Markets’ Mitch Steves estimated a rise from $70 million to $180 for Nvidia’s cryptocurrency revenues from Q3 to Q4. Again, BMO Capital Markets Ambrish Srivastava laid out that in total, the mining segment would constitute more than $230 million of revenue in that period. He states, “We had said the company needed to beat and raise, and it sure did, and then some” and that, “Crypto likely had a hand to play in the results.”