Nvidia has halted a partnership announcement with Arbitrum, reaffirming its stance against including cryptocurrency projects in its AI initiatives. Despite outreach from the crypto sector, Nvidia’s criteria for its accelerator programs explicitly exclude crypto. The company’s historical reluctance and statements from CEO Jensen Huang and CTO Michael Kagan underscore a long-standing aversion to the crypto industry.
Nvidia has once again shown its reluctance to engage in the cryptocurrency sector. A recent partnership announcement between Arbitrum, a Layer 2 network, and Nvidia for the new Ignition AI Accelerator was unexpectedly halted. Details from Nvidia were scarce, causing confusion and frustration among Arbitrum representatives. This reiterates Nvidia’s ongoing stance against integrating crypto projects into its AI accelerator initiatives, a position that many in the crypto community are keen to challenge.
The Ignition AI Accelerator was looking to make waves as Arbitrum prepared to unveil its exclusive partnership. This program, which is an offshoot of Nvidia’s existing Inception initiative, is designed to provide key support for promising AI startups through infrastructure credits and mentoring. However, the pause from Nvidia left many disappointed, highlighting the chasm that still exists between the hopeful crypto sector and Nvidia’s strict exclusion policy. The accelerator’s criteria explicitly disqualify cryptocurrency projects, underscoring Nvidia’s longstanding caution.
This isn’t a fresh development. Back in 2018, Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang referred to the crypto boom’s fallout as a “crypto hangover,” linked to a decline in Ethereum’s price that left Nvidia with a surplus of unsold GPUs. Nvidia even faced a fine of $5.5 million for mishandling its crypto-related revenue reports. A recent comment from Nvidia’s CTO, Michael Kagan, further illustrates this distancing: he stated that crypto lacks societal value, positioning it unfavourably against AI.
Despite Nvidia’s consistent stance, some industry observers continue to see minor signals of hope. There was a glimpse of a possible opening when Huang engaged in discussions with Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of the NEAR blockchain, during the 2024 Graphics Technology Conference. However, the focus remained strictly on AI and not on crypto. Huang’s comments about “programmable money” were broadly interpreted rather than taken as an endorsement of cryptocurrency.
In an industry eager for cooperation, some still interpret Nvidia’s actions as potential softening in its approach to crypto involvement. However, with the company ongoing in its explicit exclusion and refusal to discuss its crypto policy, it increasingly appears that Nvidia’s position remains firmly established. For now, the clear message from Nvidia is simple: crypto will not be included in its future plans.
