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Nvidia, AMD Pinched By Cryptocurrency Mining Competition

Graphics-chip makers Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Nvidia (NVDA) are likely to lose business in the cryptocurrency mining market to emerging competitors, a Wall Street analyst said Monday.

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Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Christopher Rolland on Monday downgraded AMD to negative from neutral and cut his price target on neutral-rated Nvidia to 200 from 215.

Bitmain Technologies, a China-based Bitcoin miner and designer of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), has developed an ASIC for mining Ethereum cryptocurrency, Rolland said in a report. Bitmain is starting production of the ASIC this quarter with production ramping in May, he said.

The proliferation of Ethereum-mining ASICs from Bitmain and others has the ability to impact about 20% of AMD's total revenue and about 10% of Nvidia's revenue, he said.

Also, a recently developed ASIC for artificial intelligence could provide a headwind for Nvidia's data center business, he said.

AMD and Nvidia are expected to release next-generation graphics processing units (GPUs) soon, which could offset some of the potential gains by ASIC rivals, Rolland said.

Nvidia is holding its GPU Technology Conference this week in San Jose, Calif. The company will address uses of graphics processors in artificial intelligence and deep learning applications.

Nvidia is one of the top AI stocks to watch. Nvidia is currently ranked No. 16 on the IBD 50 list of top-performing growth stocks.

Nvidia shares jumped 4.9% to 244.48 on the stock market today. AMD stock dropped 1.8% to 10.44.

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