Monday, March 26th 2018
NVIDIA, AMD to Face Worsening Investment Outlook as Bitmain Preps to Launch Ethereum ASIC
Analyst firm Susquehanna has cut AMD and NVIDIA's share price targets on the wake of confirmed reports on Bitmain's upcoming Ethereum ASIC. There's been talks about such a product for months - and some actual silicon steering as well that might support it. Susquehanna, through analyst Christopher Rolland in a note to clients Monday, cited their travels in Asia as a source of information.
This has brought confirmations that "(...) Bitmain has already developed an ASIC [application-specific integrated circuit] for mining Ethereum, and is readying the supply chain for shipments in 2Q18." And it doesn't seem Bitmain is the only company eyeing the doors of yet another extremely lucrative ASIC mining market: "While Bitmain is likely to be the largest ASIC vendor (currently 70-80% of Bitcoin mining ASICs) and the first to market with this product, we have learned of at least three other companies working on Ethereum ASICs, all at various stages of development."
Rolland believes Bitmain's specialized chip offering for Ethereum will hurt demand for PC graphics cards - as well it should, since it stands as much a status quo breaker as Bitcoin mining ASIC were at the time of their introduction. Rolland further estimated that ethereum mining-related sales accounted for about 20% of AMD's sales and 10% of NVIDIA's revenue - strong numbers that if declining, would surely impact share value and company valuation. As a result, the analyst lowered his price target for AMD shares to $7.50 from $13, representing a 29% reduction from Friday's close. Forecast for NVIDIA shares was also reduced to $200 from $215, but NVIDIA didn't see a downgraded state - it remained at neutral - while AMD was downgraded from neutral to negative. The reasoning? "NVIDIA has a stronger and more durable gaming franchise which would help it work through this potential Ethereum-related unwind," he wrote.
Source:
Yahoo Finance
This has brought confirmations that "(...) Bitmain has already developed an ASIC [application-specific integrated circuit] for mining Ethereum, and is readying the supply chain for shipments in 2Q18." And it doesn't seem Bitmain is the only company eyeing the doors of yet another extremely lucrative ASIC mining market: "While Bitmain is likely to be the largest ASIC vendor (currently 70-80% of Bitcoin mining ASICs) and the first to market with this product, we have learned of at least three other companies working on Ethereum ASICs, all at various stages of development."
70 Comments on NVIDIA, AMD to Face Worsening Investment Outlook as Bitmain Preps to Launch Ethereum ASIC
Crypto is an inefficient mess, imo, but the philosophy behind it is, if anything, more fair and anti-greed than how the current fiat systems work.
Man dint get toy.
Man stomps feet.
Calls other man.
On the other hand, it is more efficient and reduces reliance on GPUs which is good very both for the enthusiast community and the environment.
On a personal note, I do have a few cards mining and I will not be 'butt-hurt' when it becomes unprofitable to mine. When I started, I knew that would be the eventuality and I have plans for my GPUs aside from mining.
And killing off most GPU mining for good.
And with or without these ASIC miners reality is that the sales and production of cards already done in the past few months has driven difficulty through the roof. That combined with the coin price drops which are heavily related to the increased mining throughput and difficulty, and mining is barely 1/3 as profitable as it was. Two or three more months of difficulty increasing at the same rate (and maybe sooner than that) and it will be in the same situation as Bitcoin where only industrial-scale mining is profitable anymore. It would take a massive spike in gpu-mined coin values to overcome the difficulty increases since December. And everyday that doesn't happen while difficulty continues to climb only makes that comeback less likely.
There are many more companies that I have boycotted.
A person who plans, builds and maintains a mining farm is no more "greedy" than me when I queue sheets to be printed at the office, or you when you do whatever you do for a living. You provide a service that is demanded by someone that isn't deemed illegal or unethical, and you get paid for it.
As for greed, humans are innately greedy. It is what we do. Always have, always will. You can call me greedy all you want because I mine but I donate thousands of dollars a year to causes supporting veterans, elderly, and animals. I participate in beach cleanups, mangrove and tree plantings. What do you do?
For me personally, my beef is more with how we humans facilitate that greed and the immense waste that comes with it. Bitcoin is one of the greatest examples thus far.
Yes, ASICs can be circumvented by coders.
Don't think that can happen with the above ACAP
chips.
There is nothing wrong with using GPUs to do crypto,
but there is also no stopping someone using an
ACAP from coding it to do literally ANY crypto operation.
In any case, I really don't think this particular asic will make much of a dent. You can basically do the same thing with a platinum psu and 9 1060GB for a few hundred dollars less. And as a bonus, you can mine other currencies...or waste your time playing games with them. You get to choose at that point.