China vs. USA: Nvidia and Intel Lose Their Supremacy in Bitcoin (BTC) Mining

Between China and the United States, the hatchet has never been buried. The trade war initiated by the two superpowers in 2018 took on a different form a year later. Since 2019, analysts have renamed this Sino-American antagonism the ‘technology war.’ It began with a decree banning Chinese technologies meant for equipping American 5G companies. Packs of sanctions followed this restriction, unfortunately creating a boomerang effect. Electronic giants specializing in bitcoin mining chips like Intel and Nvidia are suffering.

Nvidia and Intel Abandon Bitcoin Mining

Nvidia, which shared the bitcoin mining chip market with Bitmain and MicroBT, had to throw in the towel after experiencing a drop in sales in the first quarter of 2022.

In an article published on TechCrunch in September 2022, we learned that the artificial intelligence chip manufacturer Nvidia lost up to $400 million in the third quarter of 2022 due to new export restrictions on its electronic components to China. Notably, AI chips accounted for 26% of its revenue in 2021.

The same export controls also forced Nvidia to halt its sales of A100 and H100 chips to Russia. Russia is currently positioning itself as a heavyweight in bitcoin mining. Washington’s primary goal is to deprive the Russians of integrated circuits, which would prevent them from strengthening their military power and possibly losing their war against Ukraine.

The permanent cessation of the production of certain Nvidia cards designed for bitcoin mining was announced in early 2023. Nevertheless, its bitcoin mining graphics cards, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, RTX 4080, and CMP 170HX, have been impressing miners with their exceptional crypto mining performance.

Intel, which recently entered the bitcoin mining chip market, is also ending its venture. Problems related to unclear regulations and costs have pushed it to refuse all orders from Blockscale as of October 20. The end of bitcoin mining chip shipments is set for April 20, 2024.

“As we prioritize our investments in IDM 2.0, we have end-of-lifed the Intel Blockscale 1000 Series ASIC while we continue to support our Blockscale customers,” according to Reuters.

The United States Falls Victim to Its Multiple Aggressions Against China

On October 7th, the South China Morning Post mentioned a new series of American sanctions against 42 Chinese companies. Through its Department of Commerce, the United States believes this initiative will permanently halt recurring practices of importing American-origin integrated circuits to Russia. Consequently, Vladimir Putin’s country could optimize its precision missile and drone guidance systems.

“No matter how convoluted the trail may be or how many hands items are passing through, if US-origin items are finding their way to Russia’s military, we will work tirelessly to stop it,” said Alan Estevez, undersecretary for industry and security.

Sanctioning China in this manner only fuels the Chinese Communist Party’s ambition for chip self-sufficiency. Its ‘Made in China 2025’ plan aims for a 70% self-sufficiency rate in integrated circuit supplies. The possibility of China’s technological supremacy in the near future is a plausible scenario.

At the same time, American semiconductor suppliers are in a difficult situation. Where should they ship their Nvidia, Intel, Micron Technology, and other stocks? Embargoes will only strengthen the positions of other semiconductor manufacturers, including Taiwan, South Korea, and possibly China.

However, it’s worth noting the efforts of Nvidia and Intel Corp to circumvent American export restrictions. Thanks to their GPU AI chips, A100 and Gaudi2, which are currently not on the U.S. blacklist, these two giants hope to fill the void left by the previous restrictions.

Is this the reason that prompted Tether to develop Moria, its artificial intelligence-based bitcoin mining platform?