This week, Bernstein analysts released a report into Bitmain’s operations. It estimates the Chinese firm to have made $3-$4 billion last year from mining cryptocurrency and for selling the equipment for others to do the same.
If Bernstein’s figures are accurate, Bitmain pulled in the same amount as Nvidia last year. Yet while Nvidia is a household name, few people outside of the cryptocurrency space have even heard of Bitmain. Bernstein calculates Nvidia to have made $3 billion in 2017, but points out that it took 24 years for the company to attain that profit level; Bitmain has achieved the same feat in just four years.
The report went on to predict that Bitmain will further increase its dominance of the mining business this year, noting “Bitmain will likely lead the cryptocurrency asic industry and migrate some of its chips to 10nm and the most advanced 7nm. That will make the company one of the top five users of TSMC’s 7nm in 2018, with demand comparable with Qualcomm’s, HiSilicon’s, or AMD’s.”
https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-hardware-manufacturer-bitmain-made-a-profit-of-up-to-4-billion-last-yearProof of the adage that the people making the most money during a gold rush are those selling shovels. Maybe another reason why GPU prices are up?
