Nvidia and Jensen Huang Face Certified Class Action Over Crypto Mining Disclosures

A federal judge granted class certification on March 25, 2026 in a securities lawsuit against Nvidia Corporation and CEO Jensen Huang, allowing investors who bought the company's stock during the 2017-2018 crypto mining boom to pursue their claims collectively.

The certified class covers purchasers of Nvidia common stock between August 10, 2017, and November 15, 2018 — a window of roughly 15 months. The case is consolidated as In re NVIDIA Corporation Securities Litigation, Case No. 4:18-cv-07669-HSG.

What does the lawsuit allege?

Plaintiffs contend Nvidia misrepresented how much cryptocurrency mining demand was propping up sales of its gaming graphics cards during the boom. Huang characterized mining as a minor contributor to the business and reportedly described it as "small for us."

The plaintiffs allege the reality looked substantially different. They claim miners accounted for nearly two-thirds of certain sales segments, and that total crypto-related revenue exceeded $1 billion during the class period. That gap between a "small for us" characterization and a billion-plus dollars in crypto-linked revenue forms the core of the dispute.

The suit claims violations of two provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934:

• Section 10(b), which targets misleading statements and omissions connected to buying or selling securities
• Section 20(a), which extends liability to individuals who control a company — the provision under which Huang is named alongside the corporation

The lead plaintiffs are two European institutional investors: Lannebo Kapitalförvaltning AB, a Swedish asset manager, and Stichting Pensioenfonds PGB, a Dutch pension fund.

Why did the case survive dismissal?

The litigation has already navigated a full appellate cycle. A lower court dismissed the case in 2021, which could have ended it. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals revived the lawsuit in 2023 and sent it back for further proceedings. It has now cleared the class certification hurdle.

Nvidia has paid once before over this same subject matter. In 2022, the company settled charges with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and paid a $5.5 million penalty over inadequate disclosures about crypto mining's impact on its business.

An SEC settlement and a private securities class action operate on different tracks, however. The regulator's case addressed disclosure failures. The investor suit asks whether shareholders lost money because of allegedly misleading statements, and if so, how much.

What does class certification change?

Certification is procedural, but consequential. Without it, each investor would have to litigate separately, which is impractical for most individual shareholders. With a certified class, every buyer of Nvidia stock during the class period can be represented together, which materially raises the potential financial exposure for the defendants.

The case now moves toward discovery and the merits stage. None of the allegations have been proven. Nvidia retains the ability to contest them as proceedings continue, and certification itself does not determine whether plaintiffs will prevail on the merits.

The next inflection point comes at the summary judgment stage, where the court will weigh the evidentiary record assembled in discovery — a phase that could still take a year or more to produce rulings.