Intel Launches Crypto Mining Initiative; Argo, Block to Get First Chips This Year

Semiconductor giant Intel (INTC) officially announced its crypto mining initiative on Friday, revealing that Argo Blockchain (ARGO) and Jack Dorsey-led Block (SQ) will receive the chipmaker's first mining chips later this year.

In a Friday blog post, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel's Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group Raja M. Koduri said Intel said will contribute to blockchain technology with a "roadmap of energy-efficient accelerators." Koduri said that the company is "mindful" that blockchains consume a lot of energy, which is why they are focusing on "energy-efficient computing technologies at scale."

Intel first revealed that it was working on a mining application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) dubbed "Bonanza Mine" in January, when a product release was included in the agenda for an upcoming semiconductor conference.

An Argo spokesperson confirmed to CoinDesk that it had signed an agreement to buy Intel’s mining ASICs.
Griid Infrastructure has also entered into a supply agreement for Intel's new mining ASICs. As part of the agreement, Intel has guaranteed that it will sell at least 25% of its mining ASICs production to Griid until 2025.

The mining ASICs will offer "1000x better performance per watt than mainstream GPUs for SHA-256 based mining," Koduri wrote. Large professional miners mostly use ASICs for bitcoin mining, however, so the graphics processing unit (GPU) comparison may not be as meaningful for them.

The chips are built on a "tiny piece of silicon" so that it won't impact Intel's supply of current products, Koduri noted.
Intel also announced a Custom Compute Group within its Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics unit, which will build custom silicon platforms for blockchain and other types of computing.

Block, led by Twitter's founder, is building an open-source bitcoin mining system, aiming to make the network more decentralized.
Cincinnati-based Griid is planning a $3.3 billion IPO on the New York Stock Exchange through a merger with a special purpose acquisition vehicle (SPAC).