In keeping with a larger industry trend of Bitcoin miners looking for new sources of income, Hut 8 is expanding its partnership with Bitmain to introduce a new ASIC miner and investigates AI/HPC diversification.
One of the biggest Bitcoin miners in North America, Hut 8, declared that it was growing its alliance with Bitmain, a top producer of mining rigs.
According to Hut 8’s announcement from Sept. 19, the collaboration resulted in the launch of the U3S21EXPH, a next-generation ASIC miner designed to increase efficiency and reduce costs.
Through a 15 exahash per second (EH/s) hosting agreement utilizing custom data center infrastructure created internally, Hut 8 intends to implement the model in the second quarter of 2025.
Today, Hut 8 is launching a next-generation ASIC miner developed in partnership with @BITMAINtech. The U3S21EXPH will be the first ASIC miner mass-commercialized by BITMAIN to feature direct liquid-to-chip (DLC) cooling within a U form factor.
— Hut 8 (@Hut8Corp) September 19, 2024
Hut 8 plans to deploy the model in… pic.twitter.com/810M78NJ9o
The Most Efficient ASIC Miner Yet
The U3S21EXPH is a more compact and energy-efficient ASIC miner because it is the first to use direct liquid-to-chip cooling in a U form factor.
With an efficiency of 13 joules per terahash, the new miner can achieve up to 860 terahash (TH/s), greatly surpassing the performance of many other ASIC miners available on the market. For miners, this efficiency rating means less energy use and lower operating expenses.
Hut 8 hopes to further maximize efficiency and cut expenses by integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into data center operations.
“Our partnership with Bitmain has been instrumental in advancing our thinking on ASIC compute and creating a more scalable model for data center design,” said Asher Genoot, CEO of Hut 8.
Hut 8’s hash rate under management is anticipated to rise from 18.5 EH/s to approximately 33.5 EH/s with the initial agreement for the U3S21EXPH. The U3S21EXPH presents a viable way to boost productivity and sustain profitability as the business gets ready for the difficulties that lie ahead, such as the growing complexity of the Bitcoin network.
Bitcoin Miners Seek New Revenue Streams
Rising energy prices and decreased block subsidies are putting more financial strain on the Bitcoin (BTC) mining sector. In response, a lot of mining companies—including Hut 8—are looking into different sources of income and expanding their business.
Increasingly branching out into high-performance computing (HPC) and AI data business models is one of their tactics. These miners aim to secure more consistent revenue streams and possibly higher returns by utilizing their robust infrastructure for wider applications.
We are incredibly excited to announce a $150 million strategic investment from @coatuemgmt to partner in building a next generation AI infrastructure platform. This investment will accelerate growth in our data center portfolio and provides access to Coatue's extensive network of… pic.twitter.com/BYvpHx50PS
— Hut 8 (@Hut8Corp) June 24, 2024
According to investment firm VanEck, the potential upside for publicly traded Bitcoin miners diversifying into AI and HPC is significant. Over a 13-year period, these companies could generate additional annual profits exceeding $13.9 billion by 2027.
Along with its collaboration with Bitmain, Hut 8 was able to secure a substantial investment of $150 million from Coatue Management. The company’s next-generation energy and artificial intelligence infrastructure platform will be developed with the help of this funding, which was obtained in June 2024 through a convertible note agreement.