Nvidia's trial over 2017 crypto profits will proceed

The U.S. Supreme Court changed its mind about the Nvidia lawsuit over how much it relied on the crypto business, which means a trial could finally happen.

Between the lines: Nvidia is the big winner of recent times amid the AI boom, but in prior eras, it had a more ambivalent relationship with another edgy new technology that padded its bottom line at times: cryptocurrency mining.

• Before it got rich on AI chips, Nvidia made (and still makes) computing equipment optimized for gaming that could also be used for certain kinds of blockchain mining, especially on Ethereum.
• These devices would become pricey whenever mining got hot, such as in 2017. (There's no longer mining on the second-largest blockchain.)

Background: This case goes back to those ancient times in the high-tech world.

• 2017 had been a big boom on the blockchains (BTC topped out just under $20,000), primarily driven by the first big surge in interest for tokens on Ethereum.
• But that came to a screeching halt early in 2018 when evidence surfaced of long-feared SEC investigations (by the prior Trump administration agency).
• Nvidia's stock dropped over 50% in the second half of that year, and the case was originally brought that December by an investor.

Zoom in: "Demand for NVIDIA gaming CPUs [traditional central processing units] among cryptocurrency miners was a much more significant driver of NVIDIA's growth than the Company had disclosed," the plaintiffs wrote in their initial filing from yesteryear.

Weirdly, this case has made it to the Supreme Court because there has never been a trial. (I was confused too.)

• In its ruling, the court said only that it was "dismissed as improvidently granted."

The upshot: The federal district court in Oakland, California, will now have to take up the case against Nvidia.

What they're saying: Nvidia in a statement yesterday said, "We would have preferred a decision on the merits affirming the trial court's dismissal of the case, but we are fully prepared to continue our defense."

• A statement from the plaintiffs' attorneys called it "a win for corporate accountability."

The intrigue: Nvidia settled with the SEC over the same issue for $5.5 million in 2022, neither admitting nor denying fault.

The bottom line: The union members and the Nordics will now finally get to make their case.

• Meanwhile, the ones who held on since then probably aren't complaining.