$15 Billion Valuation – Bitmain Will Keep Top Mining Spot

Bitmain now has a $13 billion valuation following an IPO, and is starting the build out of a massive mining facility in the United States.

Bitmain has been the industry leader in mining by profits since day one. The founders of the company were the first to designed an ASIC computer chip capable of mining Bitcoin. ASIC miners outperform any other method currently available. In 2017 the company generated between $3 and $4 billion. 

Founders Jihan Wu was previously a financial analyst and private equity fund manager, and Micree Zhan was trying to gain funding for a start up at the time they met in 2013. They discovered Bitcoin that year, and became the first to translate Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin Whitepaper to Chinese. They found Bitmain in Beijing, China, after implementing the new ASIC compatibility, and now have offices in San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong, Chengdu and Shenzhen as well. 

IPO – $15 Billion Valuation

Bitmain just completed an IPO, reaching a $15 billion valuation, but the company hopes to reach $30 billion when listed to Hong Kong Stock Exchange next month. The funding came primarily from a Japanese Tech company called Softbank. This is the same company that became the largest shareholder of Uber back in January of this year when Uber completed a funding round totaling $1.5 billion.

Texas Mining Facility

News of a the facility came out earlier this year when Bitmain listed job openings for Data Center Managers in the United States, where they currently do not have operational facilities. But this week the company confirmed that they will be building a new facility in Texas.

It will cost $500 million or more to open the blockchain data center and mining facility in Rockdale, Texas, and create around 400 jobs. Texas is likely the choice for favorable business laws. It is being built out of a former smelting facility. Estimated completion date is the fourth quarter of this year, but will not be fully operational until 2019. 

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