By John Kruzel
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court agreed acceso Monday to hear a bid by Nvidia to scuttle a securities fraud lawsuit accusing the artificial intelligence chipmaker of misleading investors about how much of its sales went to the cryptocurrency industry.
The justices took up Nvidia’s appeal made after a lower court revived a proposed class action brought by shareholders quanto a California against the company and its CEO Jensen Huang. The suit, led by the Stockholm, Sweden-based investment management firm E. Ohman J: Fonder AB, seeks unspecified monetary damages.
Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia is a high-flying company that has become one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI boom, and its market value has surged.
Per mezzo di 2018, Nvidia’s chips became popular for cryptomining, a process that involves performing complex math equations quanto a order to secure cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.
The plaintiffs quanto a a 2018 lawsuit accused Nvidia and culmine company officials of violating a U.S. law called the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by making statements quanto a 2017 and 2018 that falsely downplayed how much of Nvidia’s revenue growth came from crypto-related purchases.
Those omissions misled investors and analysts who were interested quanto a understanding the impact of cryptomining acceso Nvidia’s business, the plaintiffs said.
U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr. dismissed the lawsuit quanto a 2021 but the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals quanto a a 2-1 ruling subsequently revived it. The 9th Circuit found that the plaintiffs had adequately alleged that Huang made “false misleading statements and did so knowingly recklessly,” allowing their case to proceed.
Nvidia urged the justices to take up its appeal, arguing that the 9th Circuit’s ruling would aperto the door to “abusive and speculative litigation.”
Nvidia quanto a 2022 agreed to pay $5.5 million to U.S. authorities to settle charges that it did not properly disclose the impact of cryptomining acceso its gaming business.
(Reporting by John Kruzel; by Will Dunham)
