Bitmain submits prospectus with net profit of US$950 million in the first half of 2018

On the evening of September 26, Bitmain uploaded its A1 prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, launching its listing plan. In the prospectus, Bitmain called itself China's second largest fabless chip design company and the world's largest cryptocurrency mining company. It is reported that part of the proceeds from this fundraising will be used for the research and development of high-tech AI chips and AI applications and to expand production.

According to the prospectus, Bitmain's adjusted net profit in the first half of 2018 was as high as US$950 million, which was the same as the full year of 2017. Previously, with the decline in Bitcoin prices and the price of Antminer series mining machines, the industry was generally concerned about Bitmain's 2018Q2 quarterly performance.

Currently, Bitmain's global cryptocurrency mining machine market share is as high as 74.5%. According to the prospectus, Bitmain has mass-produced the second-generation AI chips and hardware products, which may become the company's new growth highlight in the future. On the evening of September 21, at the Georgia Global Digital Currency Ecological Industry Chain Summit and Mining Exchange Summit, Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu officially released the 7nm Bitcoin mining chip BM1391, which can be used to mine two encrypted digital currencies, Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

On August 8, Bitmain's competitor Canaan Creative took the lead in announcing that it had become the world's first company to achieve mass production of 7nm chips, outsourced to TSMC. This move immediately sparked a lot of controversy, and many semiconductor professionals told Deep Web that this move was likely to blur the boundaries between "mass production" and "trial production" and play a marginal ball.

According to the prospectus, Canaan's global shipments in 2017 were 294,500 units, ranking second, with Bitmain's 940,000 units in first place. In 2017, Canaan's main sales models were the A7 and A6 series, of which the number of A7 (6T) chips was 72 and the number of A6 3.5T was 80. Based on the maximum value of "80", Canaan's chip quantity in 2017 was only about 24 million. With TSMC's order volume, Canaan's order power is self-evident. Therefore, the 7nm news is generally interpreted as good news before the listing bell.

At present, mining machine companies represented by Bitmain have all turned to AI business. Leaving the blockchain track means losing the strong position of upstream blockchain companies. After losing the halo of the blockchain concept, the AI ​​strength of the three giants has also ushered in a real test.

According to the prospectus, Canaan Creative plans to mass-produce edge computing knowledge storage chips (KPU) in the fourth quarter of 2018. Target applications include voice and image recognition functions in smart homes, smart cities, smart surveillance, and smart toys, as well as various IoT applications.

Ebang International (a similar company that has submitted an application for listing on the Hong Kong stock market) is also developing artificial intelligence data processors, with high-speed computing power becoming the main feature. In the prospectus, Ebang International stated that it is currently designing computing hardware that can effectively process large amounts of data, and the first artificial intelligence computing hardware model is expected to be released in the second half of 2019.

Bitmain has embarked on the AI ​​transformation track. As a Bitcoin mining company with a monopoly on computing power, entering the artificial intelligence industry with computing power demand is more like a natural choice. Wu Jihan publicly predicted that AI-related revenue will account for more than 40% of Bitmain's revenue in the next five years.