ASIC manufacturers are quietly becoming mega-miners
ASIC manufacturers are evolving from pure hardware vendors into some of the world’s largest Bitcoin miners. As mining margins compressed through 2024 and into 2025, demand for new rigs softened and many traditional mining operators pivoted part of their power footprints toward higher-paying AI and high‑performance computing (HPC) workloads. That shift left ASIC makers with surplus inventory and rigid long‑term wafer and chip-production contracts they still had to honor.
Rather than dumping machines into a weak market and crushing prices further, leading manufacturers have started to energize their own rigs at scale. By plugging these units into proprietary or partner-operated farms, they convert inventory into hashrate and earn block rewards directly. The result is a structural shift: the companies that design and fabricate Bitcoin mining chips are now capturing a larger share of global hashrate and morphing into vertically integrated manufacturer‑miner hybrids.
This model allows ASIC makers to smooth out volatile hardware sales cycles, arbitrage weak spot demand, and accumulate Bitcoin in-house. But it also concentrates mining power in fewer, better-capitalized hands, raising questions about competition and decentralization across the network.
Bitdeer and Canaan: case studies in vertical integration
Bitdeer illustrates how fast this manufacturer‑to‑miner pivot can unfold. In 2025, the company’s self‑mining hashrate exploded from 16.5 EH/s in June to 22.3 EH/s in July, 30.0 EH/s in August, and about 41.2 EH/s by the end of October—roughly a 5x ramp in less than a year. Management has been explicit that some of the SEALMINER rigs originally earmarked for customers have instead been redirected to Bitdeer’s own sites. At the same time, Bitdeer trimmed or repurposed hosting and cloud contracts to prioritize self‑mining, transforming itself into one of the world’s top five Bitcoin miners by hashrate.
The financials reflect this shift. Bitdeer’s Q3 2025 revenue hit $169.7 million, up 173% year over year, with self-mining as the primary driver. On the hardware side, the firm continues to mass-produce its SEALMINER A3 and is developing the SEAL04 chip, which targets efficiency around 5 J/TH. That combination of chip design, rig manufacturing, infrastructure buildout, and proprietary mining makes Bitdeer a textbook vertically integrated Bitcoin miner rather than just a hardware vendor.
Canaan, long known for its Avalon ASICs, is following a similar path. By October 2025, Canaan had deployed roughly 9.31 EH/s of machines, with about 8.25 EH/s already online and a target of 10.31 EH/s once all rigs are installed. Its self‑mining operations span multiple jurisdictions, including the United States and Ethiopia, giving the company a geographically diversified footprint. Canaan has also exited its AI‑chip business to refocus capital and engineering resources squarely on Bitcoin ASICs and its own mining fleet. The strategy is clear: capture margin at both layers—hardware sales and mining yield—while using self‑mining to soak up capacity when external demand slumps.
Bitmain’s opaque reach and the structural implications
Bitmain’s direct self‑mining footprint is harder to quantify, but its influence on global hashrate is visible through a network of affiliates and public “proxies.” Cango, for example, surged above 50 EH/s after receiving around 18 EH/s from Bitmain‑linked entities via Antalpha, a scale that is difficult to justify without viewing Cango effectively as an extension of Bitmain’s mining strategy. BitFuFu, another example, manages more than 35 EH/s globally and owns roughly 5 EH/s outright, with its growth powered by long‑term supply and hosting deals tied back to Bitmain.
In 2025, Bitmain also pushed its S21 Hydro rigs into multiple Hong Kong–listed companies, including DL Holdings and IBS, often using creative financing structures and hosting them at Bitmain‑associated data centers. Taken together, these arrangements suggest Bitmain is ensuring that its hardware is energized somewhere—on its own balance sheet, through joint ventures, or via closely aligned listed partners. While the company may not publicly declare a towering self‑mining number, the web of relationships points to substantial, if opaque, control over global hashrate.
These trends are unlikely to reverse quickly. With weaker end‑market demand for new ASICs, inflexible wafer contracts, and better economics from mining internally than from selling rigs at depressed margins, manufacturers have strong incentives to keep expanding their proprietary fleets. Vertical integration lets them monetize hardware through block rewards, dampen revenue volatility, and gain strategic influence over where new hashrate comes online. The flip side is a mining landscape where ASIC makers themselves rank among the most powerful miners, reshaping competition, hashrate growth dynamics, and the decentralization profile of the Bitcoin network.
The full article from Digital Mining Solutions can be found here.
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