What comes as a shocker to the crypto community and the broader crypto mining sector, chipmaking giant Intel announced on Tuesday that it would cease the manufacturing of its flagship line of bitcoin mining chips. Moreover, the company stated that the last product to be shipped will be no later than April 20, 2024.
Intel Ends Support For Mining Chips
According to the official statement released by the company, Intel anticipates that it will stop accepting orders for the Blockscale series of mining chips by October 20 which was introduced just last year. Midway through 2022, the firm revealed its intention to enter the bitcoin mining sector, with its initial customers being Argo Blockchain (ARBK), Block (SQ), Griid Infrastructure, and Hive Blockchain (HIVE).
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Intel has announced the discontinuation of Blockscale ASICs, citing the company’s tighter focus on its IDM 2.0 operations as the reason. This move is in line with the company’s recent trend of exiting several businesses amid a company-wide restructuring and reorganizing processes. IDM 2.0 outlines Intel’s plan to increase the number of clients for whom it produces semiconductors while also increasing its own output of smaller and faster chips.
While speaking about the recent closure, the 54-year-old tech firm was quoted as saying:
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.
Has Intel Left The Mining Sector Entirely?
As things currently stand, Intel has not disclosed any next-generation Bitcoin mining equipment, and the landing sites for its Blockscale ASIC chips have all been rendered offline. However, in response to a question posed by Tom’s Hardware concerning whether or not Intel intended to completely leave the Bitcoin ASIC sector, the corporation stated, “We continue to monitor market opportunities.”
Leaving the door open for future opportunities, chips manufactured by Intel could have posed challenges to Bitmain and MicroBT’s position as effective monopolists in the crypto market. In the wake of this news, Bitcoin’s price is exchanging hands at $30,374 which represents a gain of 3.15% over the past 24 hours in comparison to an increase of 0.61% recorded over the past seven days.
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Source: https://coingape.com/major-setback-bitcoin-miners-intel-ends-chip-support/