Sberbank of Russia: Sorry, we have bought up all the graphics cards in the country

Russia is facing a severe shortage of graphics cards, which can be used for cryptocurrency mining, causing their prices to almost double. However, it is not ordinary households that buy most of the graphics cards. State-owned bank Sberbank has taken the initiative to admit that it bought a large number of graphics cards and apologized for the resulting shortage of supply.

Buy a lot of graphics cards

Alexander Vedyakhin, vice president of the government-owned Sberbank, the largest bank in Russia and the third largest in Europe, said that the cause of the graphics card shortage was their research lab.

The shortage in the graphics card market was caused by the Russian Federal Reserve, which bought up all the graphics cards for use in artificial intelligence (AI) research in its laboratories.

Vedyakhin said at an international conference on data analysis, machine learning and AI hosted by the Russian Federal Reserve:

We have made huge investments in technology, and we should apologize for causing recent supply shortages in the graphics card market because we bought a large number of graphics cards for our AI research in the lab.

However, he said the shortage would ease in the near future as their needs had been met.

Is the Russian Federal Reserve mining?

Stanislav Kuznetsov, acting chairman of the Russian Federal Reserve Board, said that they are not ready to use cryptocurrencies but are studying them in detail.

Last month, Kuznetsov spoke at the World Youth and Student Festival in Sochi:

The Russian Federal Reserve currently has no plans to use cryptocurrencies, but we are conducting corresponding research to prevent fraud.

We are not afraid of cryptocurrencies, but to protect ourselves we must understand in detail how scams work, we must study and learn every step... Currently, we are deeply researching cryptocurrencies, but unfortunately, we have not yet found a solution and do not know how to proceed, so we are not ready to use this cryptocurrency.

Graphics card shortage in Russia

In June, Chinese online trading platform AliExpress noted that demand for graphics cards in Russia has risen sharply, mainly for cryptocurrency mining. According to the report:

AliExpress has linked the increased interest in graphics cards to cryptocurrency mining.

The trading platform said its users began searching for specific models of graphics cards, typically those used in mining farms (GeForce GTX1060, GTX1070 and Radeon RX480), with demand for bitcoin mining machines increasing by 150% in a single month.

Before the Russian Federal Reserve admitted to buying out the graphics cards, there were media reports:

The recent increase in the price of Bitcoin has led to an increase in demand for graphics cards, which can be used for cryptocurrency mining.

In addition, the report also mentioned that some people usually buy 600 graphics cards at a time, which has caused the price of graphics cards to increase by nearly 80% since this spring.

As demand has increased, the average price of graphics cards in Russia has doubled: for example, a device that cost 16,000 to 18,000 rubles at the beginning of the year may cost $30,000 recently. It usually takes most stores 7 to 10 days to transfer the goods.