A California federal judge has certified a class of investors in a long-running securities fraud lawsuit against Nvidia Corporation and its CEO, Jensen Huang. The case centers on allegations that the tech giant and its top executive misled shareholders about the extent to which its soaring gaming revenue during the 2017-2018 cryptocurrency mining boom was driven by sales of graphics processing units (GPUs) to miners.
Judge Certifies Investor Class Action
In a March 25, 2025, order, U.S. District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. ruled that the shareholders can pursue their claims collectively as a class. This procedural milestone allows the case to move forward on behalf of all investors who purchased Nvidia stock between August 10, 2017, and November 15, 2018. The judge underscored that class certification is not a ruling on the merits of the fraud allegations; it simply means the group is legally permitted to litigate together.
The order highlights the centrality of the “price impact” theory. Plaintiffs must now prove that the alleged misstatements artificially inflated Nvidia’s stock price and that the price corrected when the truth was revealed, causing investor losses. The certified class period encompasses two key disclosure events: Nvidia’s August 16, 2018, earnings call and guidance cut, which led to a 4.9% stock decline, and a subsequent revenue warning on November 15, 2018, which triggered a roughly 28.5% drop over two trading days.
The core of the complaint, first filed in 2018 and amended in 2020, accuses Nvidia of downplaying its reliance on crypto-mining GPU sales and understating over $1 billion in cryptocurrency-related revenue. This narrative gained substantial legal traction following a 2022 settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In that separate matter, Nvidia agreed to pay a $5.5 million penalty and accept a cease-and-desist order for failing to adequately disclose the impact of crypto mining on its gaming business. The U.S. Supreme Court’s December 2024 denial of review left a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling intact, which had revived the shareholder suit and paved the way for this class certification.
View the court’s certification order on CourtListener.
Case Proceeds to Next Phase
Alongside certifying the class, Judge Gilliam rejected Nvidia’s attempt to exclude two key pieces of evidence proposed by the plaintiffs. The court will allow the plaintiffs’ “out-of-pocket” damages model—a standard method for calculating investor losses—and a statistical “event study” that analyzes Nvidia’s stock price movements around the critical disclosure dates. These tools will be vital for the plaintiffs to prove their price impact theory at trial.
The litigation now enters a new phase focused on discovery and pre-trial motions. The court has scheduled a case management conference for April 21, 2026, at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time, to be held via a public Zoom webinar. This conference will set the schedule for the remaining steps leading toward a potential trial.
Nvidia has consistently denied wrongdoing. A company spokesperson told Cointelegraph that investors who purchased stock during the 2017-2018 period “have done incredibly well, as our corporate strategy unfolded as we consistently predicted.” The spokesperson added that the company would “address the complaint in court.”
For its part, Cointelegraph maintains a strict Editorial Policy emphasizing independent, transparent journalism. Readers are always encouraged to verify information from primary sources like court filings and regulatory releases.
