Several cryptocurrency miners, including Genesis Mining, have resorted to leasing Boeing 747s to ship Advanced Micro Devices’ (AMD) graphic processing units (GPUS) as quickly as possible.
GPUS were bought by crypto miners from AMD or Nvidia to make money. Miners will get a supply of Ether each day if they are able to pay the costs of electricity and labor to run the GPUS and if they possess sufficient processing power.
The amount of processing power devoted to mining Ethereum is measured in “hash rate.” With a sudden explosion in mining resources, everyone began to get GPUS to get mining thus creating a shortage in the market.
Genesis Mining Chief Executive Officer Marco Streng says:
“Time is critical, very critical...For example, we are renting entire airplanes, Boeing 747s, to ship on time. Anything else, like shipping by sea, loses so much opportunity.”
Streng said that they have the highest priority on time when building their data centers. Moreover, he said that they are using the fastest delivery to avoid the risk of losing the opportunity to mine for the days that the shipment of graphic processors is delayed.
How does this affect AMD?
AMD reaped the rewards from the cryptocurrency miners as its price jumped after it beats the revenue estimates. The shares rose 11 percent after the chip company announced earnings on July 25, making it the fourth best performer on the S&P 500.
However, AMD management said that despite the demand of crypto miners for graphics cards, they are not going to include these demands in their forecasts. AMD’s Chief Executive Lisa Su said that they are not looking at cryptocurrency as a long term growth driver. Instead, AMD will focus on its core market of gamers.