Supreme Court Will Hear Nvidia Shareholder Suit. A Ruling Will Have Ripple Effects.
Two years after agreeing to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $5.5 million for inadequate disclosures regarding its business with the cryptocurrency industry, Nvidia is pushing to avoid similar legal claims on a broader scale in the future.
On Monday, the Supreme Court said it agreed to hear the AI powerhouse’s appeal of a class-action lawsuit claiming that it misled investors about how much of its revenue came from the “notoriously volatile” crypto industry. The High Court will take up the case in its 2024-2025 session, which starts in October.
If Nvidia prevails, it could avoid getting bogged down in similar shareholder suits. However, a loss for Nvidia could open up a raft of similar claims not just for itself but for other companies facing shareholder suits.
The class-action suit was brought by Swedish investment firm E. Ohman J:or Fonder AB. They claim that Nvidia underreported its revenue derived from sales to the crypto industry to mine for Bitcoin and other digital currencies by more than $1.1 billion dollars over a period of 15 months between May 2017 and July 2018 by miscategorizing it as gaming revenue.
A federal judge dismissed the case in 2021 but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California, where Nvidia is based, revived it, saying the shareholders who filed the case made adequate arguments to allow it to move forward.
In petitioning the Supreme Court to hear the case, Nvidia argued that federal rules aimed at limiting frivolous lawsuits should apply on the grounds that the shareholders failed to meet threshold legal requirements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act passed by Congress in 1995.
Specifically, it said that assumptions presented by the shareholders’ experts were speculation and that the 2022 SEC settlement didn’t prove knowledge or recklessness. Nvidia’s lawyers also say the Ninth Circuit’s decision could open the door to speculative litigation.
Nvidia declined Barron’s request for comment. E. Ohman J:or Fonder AB didn’t reply immediately.
Nvidia is on a roll lately, with its stock reaching $3 trillion in market value for the first time on June 5, before completing a 10-for-1 split on June 7. Shares snapped a three-day winning streak on Monday, closing down 0.7% at $130.98, but are still up 164% so far this year.
Write to Anita Hamilton at [email protected]