NVIDIA Falls out With Insurance Company Over Faulty GPU Fiasco Claims

[btarunr]

Graphics giant NVIDIA found itself in trouble last year, with the infamous mGPU failure fiasco, that ended up costing the company around $200m over replacement of faulty GeForce mGPUs. The company then assured investors that the money spent on handling the situation would be covered by insurance claims. Now, the insurance provider, National Union Fire Insurance Company (NFUI) of Pittsburgh filed a case against NVIDIA at a California district court, leaving it to decide upon insurance coverage.

The filing reads "Concurrently with, or prior to, placing National Union on notice of the chip claims, NVIDIA has engaged in settlement negotiations with the chip claimants and, on information and belief, has agreed to settlements and/or the material terms of settlements with respect to some or all of the chip claims." The company complains that NVIDIA did not permit NFUI to participate in any of the settlement negotiations with the clients NVIDIA sold the faulty GPUs to. Instead of sharing data relating to the actual settlement negotiations, NVIDIA allegedly "flooded" NFUI with technical data the insurer could make little or no sense of, what it takes as an evasive move to cloak the actual dealings. "[NVIDIA]cloaked its refusals to provide information under the guise of preserving commercial relationships with the chip claimants." In short, the insurer doesn't want to pay up, and wants the court to decide upon the matter.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Necrofire]

Isn't an insurance company supposed to insure and not file cases against their own customers?

Had NFUI participated in any negotiations, they would probably have been as dumbfounded as they were when they saw the details of the mGPU failures...

This is why most people don't trust mechanics, because they have no clue what they're even doing that costs them $150.

Hasn't nvidia lost enough money already?

And why is the "National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, PA" headquartered in New York?

 

[buggalugs]

Isn't an insurance company supposed to insure and not file cases against their own customers?

Had NFUI participated in any negotiations, they would probably have been as dumbfounded as they were when they saw the details of the mGPU failures...

This is why most people don't trust mechanics, because they have no clue what they're even doing that costs them $150.

Hasn't nvidia lost enough money already?

Get real Necro, do you see a pattern here?? Everybody Nvidia has dealings with always ends in trouble and lawsuits. They are the most cocky arrogant company around and all they do for consumers is overcharge us for old technology. I hope Nvidia die in a fire.

If your insurer is going to bail you out why would you keep them in the dark and feed them bullshit unless you are up to dodgy business.?

 

[Wile E]

Get real Necro, do you see a pattern here?? Everybody Nvidia has dealings with always ends in trouble and lawsuits. They are the most cocky arrogant company around and all they do for consumers is overcharge us for old technology. I hope Nvidia die in a fire.

If your insurer is going to bail you out why would you keep them in the dark and feed them bullshit unless you are up to dodgy business.?

Just because the insurance company doesn't understand the information nVidia gave to them, doesn't mean it's bullshit.

 

[lemonadesoda]

Isn't an insurance company supposed to insure and not file cases against their own customers?

Yes, that's whay we BUY insurance. But the reality is, any claim is contested, especially big ones.

Remember, any payout hits their "profit". Every insurance company is motivated to not pay, or delay, and payout.

 

[KainXS]

It makes total since for the insurance company to sue them if you set your house on fire and expect money back, if your insurance company pays you and finds out they will sue you for fraud.

nvidia sold gpu's THEY KNEW WERE FAULTY, thats insurance fraud in my book

 

[enaher]

nvidia sold gpu's THEY KNEW WERE FAULTY, thats insurance fraud in my book

Thats the big question can they prove nvidia knew about the faulty chips i thik they did, lets just hope this doesnt affect the launch of the next generation of nvidia gpu...

 

[ShadowFold]

Get real Necro, do you see a pattern here?? Everybody Nvidia has dealings with always ends in trouble and lawsuits. They are the most cocky arrogant company around and all they do for consumers is overcharge us for old technology. I hope Nvidia die in a fire.

If your insurer is going to bail you out why would you keep them in the dark and feed them bullshit unless you are up to dodgy business.?

Trust me, you don't want nvidia to go out. You may think AMD are saints now, wait until they don't have any competition.

 

[a_ump]

Trust me, you don't want nvidia to go out. You may think AMD are saints now, wait until they don't have any competition.

exactly, we need nvidia to stay in, and of course they will. They aren't as established financially like Intel but they are pretty solid and that 200m isn't going to hurt them that much. Though i wonder how the coming year will go for them, as GT300 is supposedly delayed till Q1 2010, yet ATI is to release RV870 this july-sept. If ATI's cards are killer, they're going to gain a good bit of market share imo during those ~5 months with no competition.

 

[Kreij]

Whether Nvidia knew about the faulty chips is irrelevant. The insurance company is complaining about being left out of the settlement negotiations, not about Nvidias knowledge of the chip failures.

"flooded" NFUI with technical data the insurer could make little or no sense of

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Every try to figure out all the details of an insurance policy ?
It's my humble opinion that insurance is nothing more than legalized extortion, but hey, what do I know.

 

[spy2520]

sounds like Nvidia basically "wrecked the car", and practically gave the insurer an estimate of the damages on a post-it note, and the insurer is calling bullshit.

 

[EnergyFX]

NVIDIA: Bad thing happened... we fix it and bill insurance company

Insurance Company: You should have talked to us first.

NVIDIA: Oh well, it done now... pay up

Insurance Company: We no like pay up... need proof

NVIDIA: (*^%*^%&%&^*^%&^&^*&(&(&^&$^#%$#^%^%&*^%&%$^&%$ (technical gibberish)

Insurance Company: ??WTF??

NVIDIA: Pay up

Insurance Company: We confused... court system please help

Court System: Sigh

NVIDIA: Sigh

Insurance Company: please dont make us pay please dont make us pay please dont make us pay please dont make us pay crossed fingers crossed fingeres crossed fingers

 

[ArmoredCavalry]

sounds like Nvidia basically "wrecked the car", and practically gave the insurer an estimate of the damages on a post-it note, and the insurer is calling bullshit.

Yeap, exactly.

 

[Shadin]

sounds like Nvidia basically "wrecked the car", and practically gave the insurer an estimate of the damages on a post-it note, and the insurer is calling bullshit.

That sums it up perfectly.

 

[yogurt_21]

Trust me, you don't want nvidia to go out. You may think AMD are saints now, wait until they don't have any competition.

I seriously doubt nvidia is going under over 200mil even if they have to pay it out of pocket (unlikely).

no nvidia is fine, amd seems to be recovering also but the verdict is still out on them.

 

[qubit]

+1

Trust me, you don't want nvidia to go out. You may think AMD are saints now, wait until they don't have any competition.

Indeed, all companies are equally bad when put into a monopoly position.