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Mining companies' PP&E spending in November 2024
ASIC hardware giant Bitmain comes under fire
Measured year-to-date, publicly traded mining companies have spent a total of $3.6 billion on facilities, property and equipment (PP&E) upgrades, including new mining rigs.
According to TheMinerMag, 16 mining companies have raised over $5 billion in total so far in 2024, with Q3 representing the highest PP&E spending period since Q1 2022.
Spending on mining hardware made up the bulk of PP&E spending. Since 2023, publicly traded mining companies have spent a combined $2 billion on hardware upgrades.
TheMinerMag has also noted the shift from equity financing to debt financing by mining companies. MARA, formerly known as Marathon Digital, is the latest mining company to adopt this strategy with its 0% convertible bond offering, which the company used to purchase 6,474 Bitcoin ( BTC ) for its corporate treasury.
Net spend on PP&E. Source: TheMinerMag
Related: Load variability is key to AI energy infrastructure — TeraWulf CTO
Mining companies' PP&E spending in November 2024
On November 1, Bitfarms signed a miner hosting agreement with Stronghold that includes provisions to host an additional 10,000 Bitcoin mining units at its facility in Pennsylvania.
During the same period, CleanSpark, a company focused on renewable Bitcoin mining, announced plans to build 400 m/w of mining infrastructure following its acquisition of mining company GRIID in October 2024.
Hive Digital purchased 6,500 application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for the company’s Paraguay facility, which is currently under construction, on November 11.
ASIC hardware giant Bitmain comes under fire
Chip designer Xiamen Sophgo, a China-based company with ties to Bitmain, was recently investigated by US authorities for allegedly using the same computer chips found in Huawei’s Ascend 910B AI processor.
For context, Huawei, a China-based technology company and mobile device maker, was subject to US sanctions in 2020. The company was accused of threatening US national security by using backdoors in its technology that the Chinese government could use to spy on US citizens and access sensitive data.
Bitmain has released a statement distancing itself from media claims about a business relationship with Huawei. Source: Bitmain
Following the controversy, Xiamen Sophgo and Bitmain issued statements denying allegations that they had a commercial relationship with Huawei and violated US sanctions.
Despite the statements, a shipment of Bitmain Antminers, ASIC devices used for crypto mining, has been frozen at US ports by the Customs and Border Protection Agency.
The customs agency is alleged to have charged a $200,000 fee to clear the shipment, raising fears, uncertainty and suspicion that sanctions and geopolitical tensions could create a supply shortage of much-needed mining hardware on order in the future.