Nvidia forecast beats expectations but crypto mining's role remains unclear

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Nvidia Corporation is seen during the annual Computex computer exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan May 30, 2017. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File

(Reuters) - Nvidia Corp forecast second-quarter revenue above analysts' estimates on Wednesday, but shares fell 1% after-hours as the company could not say for certain how much of its recent revenue rise was driven by the volatile cryptocurrency-mining market.

Demand for Nvidia graphics chips for video gaming boomed through the pandemic. This added several years of rapid sales growth for data center chips used in artificial intelligence applications such as image recognition.