AMD CEO Alleges that crypto is 'Not a Large Piece of Our Business'
AMD Mining Facilities
Read the original article by: Stephen Graves
AMD is the second-largest maker of computer graphic cards and chips, behind NVIDIA. The company has marketed themselves as more affordable and consumer-friendly then their competitor. But something these two tech giants share (as well as many others), in their struggle to produce products due to the ongoing chip shortage. If that wasn’t enough the recent boom in crypto mining has made these companies flag-ship GPUs skyrocket in price. This is a problem that has plagued pc enthusiasts the most.
As a result of these two factors, AMD had to tackle the difficult decision to either curb miners from buying up supply, meant for hobbyists or make a deal with the proverbial devil, and continue to allow mass purchases. NVIDIA tackled this problem by introducing software on their 30 series of cards, meant to cut down on the hashrates, making the cards "less desirable for miners".
AMD on the other hand has chosen to… "The short answer is no. We will not be blocking any workload, not just mining for that matter," said Nish Neelalojanan, product manager at AMD. This response shocked the industry but didn’t necessarily mean they were abandoning their core market. Looking into the issue one can see how the company was hesitant to make a definitive ban on crypto, its not easy to stop a problem that comes from an issue your product was never made to even do.
Speaking at the 2021 Code Conference, CEO Lisa Su was asked about whether crypto was important to the company. Responding that “that it was a relatively small part of the company's business, and shouldn't be a focus for the card manufacturer”. This should send an industry-wide sigh across PC gamers but doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be able to pick up a card next week.
Mining continues to grow all around the world, even with the recent “ban” in China. But some can find hope in the “upcoming” ETH 2.0 update, which will see the network move from mining-based proof of work, to the consensus mechanism, proof of stake, that doent’t require mining hardware.