They do virtual currency mining chips
Side by side with the mobile phone wafer electric energy
"Recently we observed a surge in demand from cryptocurrencies mining," said Law. The lawsuit will open. TSMC CEO John Doe will combine cryptocurrencies with the CPUs that used to drive the semiconductor industry, the GPU (Graphics Wafer) ), Smart phone chips and other important kinetic energy on par.
Making cryptocurrencies the focus of TSMC's quasi-two-quarter law and raising revenue projections this year is the only Chinese company that was founded in 2013 - the Bitmain.
It is a self-designed wafer production and sales of bitcoin mining machine, and the "pool", "cloud mining platform" and AI solutions business.Its development speed rocket general, early 2017 about 300 employees January this year has expanded to 1,500 people.
"From the revenue perspective, we are already the second largest IC design company in China," said Bynum, co-founder and co-CEO of ZTE (see photo). In an exclusive interview with BusinessWeek, it disclosed for the first time its revenue in 2017 About 2.5 billion U.S. dollars (about NT 73.3 billion), surpassing China Mobile Phone Chip Expo.
Not only that, bit mainland China since the second half of 2017 has become TSMC China's second-largest customer, this year is more likely to become the world's top 5. Clients HouXianXiao CLSA semiconductor industry estimates, cryptocurrencies mining chips this year accounting for TSMC Close to 7%, of which about 8% of the orders from the bit mainland, "it's revenue contribution to TSMC this year, and may even exceed (Huawei's) Hisilicon."
Although it is different from the traditional IC design companies, not direct sales of chips, but the chip mounted in the mining machine for sale, and bitcoin mining revenue, but conservatively estimated that just this year, the amount of the order placed by TSMC, it has surpassed Taiwan The second largest IC design company Lian Yong 2017 full year revenue.
He is credited as China's richest man in Bitcoin
Push bitcoin split, lower transaction costs
The legendary chapter, written by Wu Ji-han, co-founder and co-chief executive of Bitcoin, a 32-year-old native of the mainland, put forward his idea of starting a business in mainland China and hosting the business and finance. It is even more legendary as the richest man in bitcoin in China. It is estimated that the value of bitcoin held by individuals is over NT $ 1.3 billion, but Bit mainland denies this claim.
The bitcoin tycoon has a bipolar image and some view him as the bitcoin's "evangelist" in China, where he started his career as a venture capitalist with seven friends seven years before the Bitcoin / dollar exchange rate hit 1: 1 for the first time, The establishment of China's largest blockchain forum, "Babbitt," in an attempt to reverse the general public's doubts about Bitcoin is a translator of China's first paper that translated Bitcoin inventor Shinichi Satoshi.
However, Coindesk, the cryptocurrency media, has chosen Wu Qi-han as one of the top ten blockchain blockchain in 2017. His portrayal is "Falung Lukki," which is also evil in the Marvel movie "Thor Saul."
The controversy stems in 2017 when Ng Wu Han strongly supported bitcoin splitting to reduce transaction costs, facilitate circulation and bring bitcoin closer to the currency of circulation, thus creating the bitcoin branch called Bitcoin Cash. However, opponents argue that the majority of companies that support the split are bitcoin-run businesses that would violate bitcoin's "de-centralization" if the right to speak falls into the hands of a few businessmen.
He built the imperial moat
Optimistic about Bitcoin can solve the inflationary phenomenon
If Wu Ji Han break out the backbone of the continent, behind him fill in flesh and blood for this kingdom, built a moat, is the technical background of the Zhankuan mission.
Jennifer, 39, likes to think philosophically, read history books and science fiction. When interviewed, he usually thinks after a few seconds to answer long questions and short sentences, sometimes only one "yes." After the interview, he self-deprecated Said: "I may have interviewed you the quietest CEO."
In 2013, Wu Jihan found the Zhankuan Mission and hoped that he would assist in the research and development of mining chips. The next day, the Zhank Mission took only two hours to read relevant information about Bitcoin and decided to join the mainland.
"I found out that this bitcoin is a great thing and that's what I'm always looking for!" Jennifer said he began thinking about the impact of inflation on human life 10 years ago. "Why do people stop now Run, will not be thrown away by inflation? When I saw Bitcoin immediately understand that this may be antidote. "
At that time, though Bitcoin was in the Warring States Period, about 50 companies in the industry were investing in the development of miners' wafers, but for TSMC, it is still an unknown area. "It saw two young people come to me for a chip and feel that we Is not a liar? "Jennifer regiment with a smile.
Zhankun made a bitcoin briefing to TSMC's Beijing business team and secured it by way of prepayment, starting with the relatively mature 55nm process and proceeding to advanced processes such as 28 and 16nm. "They have a The business girl in Beijing also got many rewards internally because of this (referring to bitcoin and subsequent orders from the mainland of the continent) and was called "bitcoin queen" of TSMC. "
The mainland of China can grow from zero to over 70 billion yuan in 5 years, though it is related to the soaring market of bitcoin in recent years. However, it can be one of the few big winners in the mining industry, and lies in two key points.
The first is the Zhankuan group's philosophy of the golden doctrine of the core competitiveness of the bit continent, lies in the unit can be designed to power consumption, the most efficient computing mining chips.First, mining chips have large and small size of the dispute, Strong, but high power consumption, heat dissipation is difficult to solve, the long duration of the design, drag the product to market, small-chip characteristics are the opposite.
"From a philosophical level, Chinese people pay more and more attention to the golden mean," Jinkel likes to think and choose to design medium-sized chips in an effort to strike a balance between the energy consumption ratio and the product development schedule. "At first I wanted to say if I would Did you make a mistake? But a few years later, I was not the same, and I was right. "He laughed.
Second, there was a winter peak, with bitcoin falling from around $ 1: 950 to around $ 1: $ 309 in 2014. At that time, the bitcoin was fortunate to survive due to the higher cash level, Funds broken chain collapse, or reduce research and development resources, the company did not stop its research and development at the trough, next year after the launch of a new generation of chips and mining machines, swept the market, the market share of more than 8% of the brand.
"For the traditional companies, the business is so big this year and the business next year is so small that they certainly can not stand it. For us, in the big time, we should think that we will be so small next year that we will need more cash to prepare for the future. The downturn for three years, the company still have to be able to live well. "Jenkins Mission said.
Diversify risk, start AI chip
R & D manpower more than mining chip team
In view of the fact that the company is putting all its business on bitcoin, which is detrimental to long-term growth, and if the mining chip market continues to grow, other IC design houses are likely to join the competition. Start the transformation.
The year before last year, the Zhankun Mission began to develop AI chip, hoping to break the IC design world, "a generation champion" curse.Now the identification of the image as the direction and apply their experience in bitcoin mining machines, not only sell the chip, but the chip with Software, algorithms are wrapped in the server, machine sales, increase the added value.
In order to recruit suitable candidates and reduce the barriers to entry into the field of AI, both the Zhankuan Group and Wu Ji-han often made their own appearances to dig in. "The generation of boxing champions is a very real situation. We are entering the AI market with a second pioneering spirit. Is to be modest, really do not know, learn more with others. "Zhanke Mission said AI chip research and development has now 300 people, more than bitcoin mining chip R & D team size.
At the same time, we must now tackle the problem of a five-fold increase in the number of employees in a year. This is a very real management issue. "Now that we are trying our best to build our company's culture, systems and IT systems, these basic things must be promptly demonstrated. Revealed that he is reading the best-selling book "The Lean Startup" in the US business community to strengthen its management capabilities.
In the future, BIT continent will continue to work closely with TSMC, expecting to adopt more advanced processes such as 7-nanometer, but also without prior payment. In addition, it also cooperates with Taiwan's IC packaging and testing, passive components and motherboard manufacturers, Recruiting engineer, interviewed this morning early in the morning, the Jark mission about interviewing candidates, he at least once a quarter to Taiwan.
A five-year-old company can quickly become the big client expected to contribute over 60 billion revenue to TSMC this year. The year-end success of Wu Chi-han and Jen Zu-group's decision to "bet" won the bid. But in the future, when the bitcoin boom Cooling, or even digging all the day mineral, AI second start-up success? Two names can continue to stay in the semiconductor celebrities standings? Test the two bitcoin empire hegemony, can the courage and Ambition, into management and implementation.