Market leader in computer chip manufacturing Intel has already secured at least one buyer for its upcoming bitcoin mining chips, according to a registration statement filed last month with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The deal was first reported by Fox Business and provides bitcoin miner GRIID with fixed-price bitcoin mining ASIC hardware by Intel for orders placed before May 2023 as the world’s biggest chipmaker tiptoes into the industry.
Intel and GRIID agreed on the purchase this past September, but the disclosure was only made public a few months later through the filing.
“On September 8, 2021, GRIID entered to a supply agreement…pursuant to which GRIID may purchase Intel-designed BZM2 ASICs,” the S-4 filing states. “The Intel Supply Agreement is for an initial four-year term and will automatically renew thereafter for one one-year period unless either party provides at least 90 days’ notice prior to the end of the initial four-year term.”
The agreement also provisions that, subject to unspecified conditions, GRIID will be entitled to purchase at least one quarter of all qualified Intel-designed ASICs through approximately May 2025.
Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed in the copy of the deal that was made publicly available, nor were performance information of the new chips.
Intel is expected to make further details public about its upcoming chips built specifically for bitcoin mining later this year. At the ISSCC conference in February, the giant chipmaker will host a panel, called “Bonanza Mine: An Ultra-Low-Voltage Energy-Efficient Bitcoin Mining ASIC,” in the “highlighted Chip Releases: Digital/ML” track, to share details of its past explorations in bitcoin mining ASIC design.
GRIID, which is preparing to go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), is the first known buyer of Intel’s ASICs for bitcoin mining. GRIID is expected to be valued at more than $3 billion after the merging process.
UPDATE (Feb 21, 2022 at 5:504 pm UTC): Modified seventh paragraph to reflect Intel’s comments on the old and new chips.
