Nvidia could make crypto mining GPUs again if there's demand, says CFO

Chipmaker Nvidia could restart manufacturing dedicated crypto mining GPUs (graphics processing units) if there is demand, according to its CFO Colette Kress. 

Speaking at a conference last week, Kress said, "if crypto demand begins or if we see a meaningful amount, we can also use that opportunity to restart the CMP product line to address ongoing mining demand." CMP refers to dedicated crypto-mining cards, which remove the video outputs that are needed for gamers. 

At present, Nvidia isn't sure how much demand is coming from crypto miners, although an RBC analyst recently estimated that the company sold $175 million worth of the Ampere GPUs to ether (ETH) miners. 

"We don’t have visibility on how much of the RTX 30 Series end demand comes from mining," said Kress. "So, we don’t believe it’s a big part of our business today. Gaming demand is very strong, and we think that’s larger than our current supply."

GPUs are more commonly used for mining coins such as ETH, while bitcoin is mined via application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips.