TechFlow news, according to CoinDesk, Block, the fintech payment company founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, recently purchased a large number of bitcoin mining chips from Intel, accelerating its plan to enter the mining hardware market.
Intel previously announced in February 2022 that it would cease production of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) dedicated to bitcoin mining, setting the final production date for April 2024.
Block plans to complete the design of its 5nm bitcoin mining chip this quarter and use it as the basis for manufacturing machines. This acquisition means the team can now focus on developing a 3nm design.
Thomas Templeton, Block's hardware lead, said Block's first-party products will launch early next year. When asked about the quantity of chips purchased, he stated it was sufficient to bridge the time required for designing and producing their own 3nm chips.
