3 ms·

Very off topic, every time I see nvidia expand towards AI products I'm reminded that they had every opportunity to expand towards crypto products and didn't. I

by thih9 3y ago

Very off topic, every time I see nvidia expand towards AI products I'm reminded that they had every opportunity to expand towards crypto products and didn't. I like that they work on what they believe in - and skip if they don't. In a time when AI is becoming a buzzword, this feels refreshing.

quickthrower2 3y ago
Maybe they are hype immune - clearly crypto is zero sum and somewhat seasonal. Machine learning (and matmul and relu in particular) is here to stay and will expand.
Culonavirus 3y ago
> and didn't Uh huh. > Nvidia will pay $5.5 million to settle charges that it unlawfully obscured how many of its graphics cards were sold to cryptocurrency miners... And > The CMP HX is a pro-level cryptocurrency mining GPU that provides maximum performance... Just a quick google away. Nvidia will develop and sell whatever will make Nvidia more money. They just think the world of AI is two or three orders of magnitude more lucrative than mining ever was. Hence the maximum push on the AI front.
- bushbaba 3y ago
  Crypto mining using GPUs has crashed. Ether was the main source of profit, and the shift away from proof of work dried that up. Bitcoin requires ASICs without the market for nvidia, and recent conditions made this only worse. Nvidia knows their biggest revenue sources today, which are growing, and is investing into their business units based on that data. It’s just smart business.
- KaoruAoiShiho 3y ago
  > Nvidia will pay $5.5 million to settle charges that it unlawfully obscured how many of its graphics cards were sold to cryptocurrency miners... This is because they didn't serve the market... so they didn't understand how many buyers were coming from crypto.
archerx 3y ago
Do people have short memories? Nvidia did a lot of shady stuff during the crypto boom, they made dedicated mining cards [1], they even software gimped gaming cards to force people to buy their mining cards as well[2]. Nvidia is a shitty anti consumer company that has no issues fucking you over. Don't forget that or let their PR department make you think otherwise. [1] https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/cmp/ https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/cmp/ [2] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/nvidia-will-add-anti-mining-flags-to-the-rest-of-its-rtx-3000-gpu-series/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/nvidia-will-add-anti...
- rcme 3y ago
  They gimped consumer GPU cards because crypto miners were buying them all and their core gamer market was being priced out. Making dedicated mining cards was actually trying to do less for crypto, not more.
  - blitzar 3y ago
    crypto miners were buying them all because nvidia were selling directly to crypto miners entire production runs of cards
  - tinco 3y ago
    I've heard someone say they did that because randomly this new type of buyer affected their sales tremendously and they had zero insight into how that market behaved. By establishing separate product lines and sales channels they could in theory better distinguish between their products doing good because of competitive gaming performance, or random fluctuations in the crypto market. That way an investor/shareholder could more accurately price the stock. I have no idea if they were successful at achieving that goal, just thought it was interesting that market differentiation wouldn't just be useful for marketing but also for corporate accounting. They would even risk alienating the crypto market and possibly lose revenue, if it would mean they'd get a better handle on what they were selling to whom.
    - rcme 3y ago
getmeinrn 3y ago
Fellow organic user, I also find the outlook and integrity of Nvidia™ extremely refreshing. Finally a company we can believe in to play the game The Way It's Meant To Be Played™
- somsak2 3y ago
  > Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - flangola7 3y ago
    That's a dumb rule that often deserves to be broken. Appeal to authority is an abdication of responsibility.
  - jlund-molfese 3y ago
    Can we get a rule that bans copying and pasting the rules into comments? It’s just noise that lowers the quality of discussion. And most of the time, the person isn’t even breaking any rules. In this case, I’m pretty sure they were making a joke and didn’t actually think that a longtime HN user was astroturfing
- smoldesu 3y ago
  "a company we can believe in" should be the subtitle of Hacker News.
jcq3 3y ago
Very naive to think profit oriented company have beliefs and convictions... Religion of money is way stronger.
- raincole 3y ago
  Weird statement. Of course Nvidia has belief: they believe AI will brings more profit in long term than crypto will.
  - jcq3 3y ago
    Following a juicy trend doesn't mean you believe in it, also gpu mining is not a thing anymore in crypto. Nvidia has nothing to bring to cryptos.
    - petesergeant 3y ago
      > is not a thing anymore Isn’t this very recent?
- thih9 3y ago
  Why not both? Even if they believe in a technology because they believe they can deliver a profitable product (and reject something else because they think there’s no long term gains), I still prefer that to a company which would blindly try to profit from everything short term.
YetAnotherNick 3y ago
I wouldn't be very sure of that. It would be very hard to sell $30k GPU for crypto, like they are doing for AI, as AI requirement is different than gaming while crypto is not. The flop/s difference in A100($15k card) and 4090($1.5k card) is just 2x. Nvidia could constrain VRAM for consumer cards because 24 GB is enough for games or AI inference.
- Namidairo 3y ago
  > Nvidia could constrain VRAM for consumer cards because 24 GB is enough for games or AI inference. Given some of the commentary in launch reviews for the 4000 series, I wouldn't be surprised if the overwhelming opinion was that they already are.
teaearlgraycold 3y ago
I think you just aren’t aware of what NVidia was doing over the last few years.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
m3kw9 3y ago
These are real pros doing products, they know what’s real, not helping grifters pumping to pass bags, I.e hedge funds, banks, startups, influencers
callalex 3y ago
How do you feel about the GeForce Partner Program?

by thih9 3y ago

quickthrower2 3y ago

Maybe they are hype immune - clearly crypto is zero sum and somewhat seasonal. Machine learning (and matmul and relu in particular) is here to stay and will expand.

Culonavirus 3y ago

> and didn't Uh huh. > Nvidia will pay $5.5 million to settle charges that it unlawfully obscured how many of its graphics cards were sold to cryptocurrency miners... And > The CMP HX is a pro-level cryptocurrency mining GPU that provides maximum performance... Just a quick google away. Nvidia will develop and sell whatever will make Nvidia more money. They just think the world of AI is two or three orders of magnitude more lucrative than mining ever was. Hence the maximum push on the AI front.

bushbaba 3y ago
Crypto mining using GPUs has crashed. Ether was the main source of profit, and the shift away from proof of work dried that up. Bitcoin requires ASICs without the market for nvidia, and recent conditions made this only worse. Nvidia knows their biggest revenue sources today, which are growing, and is investing into their business units based on that data. It’s just smart business.
KaoruAoiShiho 3y ago
> Nvidia will pay $5.5 million to settle charges that it unlawfully obscured how many of its graphics cards were sold to cryptocurrency miners... This is because they didn't serve the market... so they didn't understand how many buyers were coming from crypto.

archerx 3y ago

Do people have short memories? Nvidia did a lot of shady stuff during the crypto boom, they made dedicated mining cards [1], they even software gimped gaming cards to force people to buy their mining cards as well[2]. Nvidia is a shitty anti consumer company that has no issues fucking you over. Don't forget that or let their PR department make you think otherwise. [1] https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/cmp/ https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/cmp/ [2] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/nvidia-will-add-anti-mining-flags-to-the-rest-of-its-rtx-3000-gpu-series/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/nvidia-will-add-anti...

rcme 3y ago
They gimped consumer GPU cards because crypto miners were buying them all and their core gamer market was being priced out. Making dedicated mining cards was actually trying to do less for crypto, not more.
- blitzar 3y ago
  crypto miners were buying them all because nvidia were selling directly to crypto miners entire production runs of cards
- tinco 3y ago
  I've heard someone say they did that because randomly this new type of buyer affected their sales tremendously and they had zero insight into how that market behaved. By establishing separate product lines and sales channels they could in theory better distinguish between their products doing good because of competitive gaming performance, or random fluctuations in the crypto market. That way an investor/shareholder could more accurately price the stock. I have no idea if they were successful at achieving that goal, just thought it was interesting that market differentiation wouldn't just be useful for marketing but also for corporate accounting. They would even risk alienating the crypto market and possibly lose revenue, if it would mean they'd get a better handle on what they were selling to whom.
  - rcme 3y ago

getmeinrn 3y ago

Fellow organic user, I also find the outlook and integrity of Nvidia™ extremely refreshing. Finally a company we can believe in to play the game The Way It's Meant To Be Played™

somsak2 3y ago
> Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- flangola7 3y ago
  That's a dumb rule that often deserves to be broken. Appeal to authority is an abdication of responsibility.
- jlund-molfese 3y ago
  Can we get a rule that bans copying and pasting the rules into comments? It’s just noise that lowers the quality of discussion. And most of the time, the person isn’t even breaking any rules. In this case, I’m pretty sure they were making a joke and didn’t actually think that a longtime HN user was astroturfing
smoldesu 3y ago
"a company we can believe in" should be the subtitle of Hacker News.

jcq3 3y ago

Very naive to think profit oriented company have beliefs and convictions... Religion of money is way stronger.

raincole 3y ago
Weird statement. Of course Nvidia has belief: they believe AI will brings more profit in long term than crypto will.
- jcq3 3y ago
  Following a juicy trend doesn't mean you believe in it, also gpu mining is not a thing anymore in crypto. Nvidia has nothing to bring to cryptos.
  - petesergeant 3y ago
    > is not a thing anymore Isn’t this very recent?
thih9 3y ago
Why not both? Even if they believe in a technology because they believe they can deliver a profitable product (and reject something else because they think there’s no long term gains), I still prefer that to a company which would blindly try to profit from everything short term.

YetAnotherNick 3y ago

I wouldn't be very sure of that. It would be very hard to sell $30k GPU for crypto, like they are doing for AI, as AI requirement is different than gaming while crypto is not. The flop/s difference in A100($15k card) and 4090($1.5k card) is just 2x. Nvidia could constrain VRAM for consumer cards because 24 GB is enough for games or AI inference.

Namidairo 3y ago
> Nvidia could constrain VRAM for consumer cards because 24 GB is enough for games or AI inference. Given some of the commentary in launch reviews for the 4000 series, I wouldn't be surprised if the overwhelming opinion was that they already are.

teaearlgraycold 3y ago

I think you just aren’t aware of what NVidia was doing over the last few years.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

m3kw9 3y ago

These are real pros doing products, they know what’s real, not helping grifters pumping to pass bags, I.e hedge funds, banks, startups, influencers

callalex 3y ago

How do you feel about the GeForce Partner Program?