Crypto

Bitcoin miners increasingly exit mining as funds flow into AI and HPC

Bitcoin mining companies are increasingly shutting down mining operations and shifting to AI and high-performance computing infrastructure businesses as mining profitability deteriorates and demand for AI data centres surges. Some listed miners have effectively stopped mining, unwound equipment contracts and sold bitcoin holdings. The shift is reflected in a fall in network hashrate. Large AI and HPC deals have drawn capital, while market valuations diverge between miners with and without such contracts.

Industry

As AI chips grow, packaging substrates shift from round wafers to square panels

As AI chips grow in area, investment is starting at home and abroad to switch packaging bases from round wafers to large square substrates. Using square panels can process 5 to 6 times more chips at once than wafers, raising area utilisation to 87 percent from 57 percent. Competition is also intensifying between Taiwan and South Korean companies over panel-level packaging, a process that reassembles cut chips on a panel and builds moulding and redistribution layers.