Nvidia Overestimated Bitcoin Mining Demand, Stuck With Excess GPU Inventory: Report
HIGHLIGHTS
*Nvidia apparently has a surplus of current generation GPUs
*This has resulted in the delay of launching new ones
*A top OEM has reportedly returned 300,000 GPUs to Nvidia
At Computex 2018, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang announced that the company would not be launching any new GPUs for "a long time". Perplexing when you consider that the GeForce 10 series of cards have been around for two years. Now we know why. It seems that Nvidia is stuck with excess inventory of 10 series cards due to overestimating the bitcoin mining GPU demand and the demand from gamers. So much so that one top Asian OEM partner reportedly returned 300,000 GPUs to Nvidia. According to a report from SemiAccurate (paid subscription) via Seeking Alpha, Nvidia also aggressively bought GDDR5 that it now has in excess stock of lower-end GPUs that need to be made into boards.
"Nvidia has overestimated pent-up gaming demand and underestimated the impact of declining mining demand," claims Seeking Alpha before going into details on the state of GPU supply from Nvidia.
"How badly have they miscalculated? Enough to have to agree to take back 300,000 GPUs from a 'top 3' Taiwan OEM. This is quite notable news as Nvidia usually exerts massive influence over its partners and can be quite ruthless with allocations of new GPUs if partners step out of line. The fact that this partner returned these GPUs says a lot about the current state of supply in the channel."