NVIDIA’s Warranty Claims Have Increased By 1000% Since The Launch of 16-Pin Connector GPUs

The failure rate of NVIDIA's 16-Pin connector GPUs should be the primary reason why the company's warranty claims have increased by 1000%.

With A Share of Over 90% In The Discrete GPU Segment, NVIDIA Witnesses A Massive Surge In Warranty Claims That Could Be Linked To Its New 16-Pin Connector Products

NVIDIA's warranty expenses have seen a drastic rise over the past three years, as Warranty Week reports an unusual rise in the company's warranty claims and accrual rates. It is reported that NVIDIA's warranty claims increased ninefold, whereas AMD's warranty claim rates increased by two-thirds during the 2024-2025 period.

The biggest story from last week's newsletter "Top 100 Warranty Providers of 2025" was the steep and rapid rise in GPU manufacturer Nvidia's warranty expenses. From 2024 to 2025, Nvidia's warranty claims and accrual rates both more than doubled, as did the end-balance of its warranty reserve fund.

Nvidia's close competitor Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD, also saw significant increases in warranty metrics, with its claims rate and warranty reserve end-balance both increasing by two-thirds.

via Warranty Week

NVIDIA's warranty claims hovered around $100 Million during 2022-2024 ($81 million in 2024), but in 2025, the company paid $894 million in warranty expenses alone. That marks a 1000% increase.

To put things into perspective, for 2025, the first quarter payment was $147 million, followed by $80 million in Q2, $156 million in Q3, and then a massive bump of $511 million in Q4 2025. NVIDIA offers a baseline warranty of 1-3 years, which can be extended by its AIC partners; however, the sharp rise in Q4 is alarming.

In Q4 2025, the tariffs dilemma was at its peak. Around the same time, DRAM prices started to shoot up, & have since quadrupled. This includes both DRAM used by PCs & GPUs. Due to heightened shortages from the AI segment, DRAM remains tight, and NVIDIA and its partners are likely paying higher prices to procure DRAM for repairs for GPUs sent for warranty claims. Another thing is that GPU prices themselves have shot up; the cost to produce graphics cards has gone up, and it all leads to higher costs for NVIDIA to settle warranty claims.

But more importantly, there have been other issues plaguing NVIDIA's discrete GPUs. For example, the 16-pin connector-related issues persist, and we see several cases reported each day. NVIDIA's RTX 40 GPUs, primarily the RTX 4090, were the first to see 16-pin related damage reports when they launched back in 2022, and that's when we can start seeing the warranty expenses for NVIDIA go up.

In 2025, NVIDIA released its RTX 50 GPUs, which have also seen lots of 16-pin related damage reports on RTX 5090 & RTX 5080 cards. That, combined with the higher DRAM and Tariff prices, could explain why the warranty expenses have seen an unusual uptick for NVIDIA.

AMD has also seen its warranty claim costs swell two-thirds, with $110 million in 2024 and $238 million in 2025. AMD's warranty claim rate was 0.69% in 2025 (up from 0.43% in 2024). Meanwhile, NVIDIA's warranty claim for Q4 2025 was 0.90% (up from 0.17% in Q1 2025).

AMD set aside $126 million in warranty accruals in 2023, which increased by two-thirds to $213 in 2024. The next year, AMD increased its warranty accruals by two-thirds once again, up to a total of $358 million in 2025.

In 2023, Nvidia set aside $109 million in warranty accruals, which increased eight-fold to $948 million in 2024. In 2025, Nvidia nearly tripled its total warranty accruals, setting aside a total of $2.59 billion over the year.

On a quarterly basis, Nvidia set aside $428 million in warranty accruals in the first quarter of 2025, $870 million in the second quarter, and $220 million in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, Nvidia set aside $1.07 billion in warranty accruals.

via Warranty Week

So multiple factors have been involved in the sharp rise of warranty claims at both NVIDIA & AMD. As component prices increase, we can expect the warranty expenses for both GPU vendors and their AIC partners to continue to rise.

News Source: Warranty Week

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