Samsung Confirms It's Now Making Cryptocurrency Mining Chips

Samsung has confirmed it is now manufacturing specialized cryptocurrency mining chips after reports to that effect surfaced this week.

South Korean news outlet The Bell first revealed the news on Jan. 30, stating that Samsung was kicking off manufacturing in January, aiming to provide application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) to an unnamed Chinese mining firm.

A company spokesperson has since told TechCrunch:

"Samsung's foundry business is currently engaged in the manufacturing cryptocurrency mining chips."

The South Korean tech giant, however, did not provide any details on its customers or the chips, TechCrunch states.

However, in its recent 4th quarter and fiscal year 2017 results report yesterday, talking about the growing demand for cryptocurrency mining,

Samsung said that, in 2018, it will provide 8-nanometer and 11nm processes to meet market needs, as well as start a "risk production" of 7nm.

Samsung's move into the bitcoin mining space will undoubtedly bring serious competition to China-based Bitmain, which claims to hold over 70 percent of the market share and uses ASICS from Taiwanese manufacturer TSMC.