Thanks to an increase in profits due to demand for GPUs capable of mining cryptocurrency, Asus has reportedly handed out considerable bonuses to employees.
According to a report from MyDrivers, as spotted by Wccftech, the Taiwanese hardware company awarded bonuses of as much as $55,000 to employees.
A cryptocurrency mining rig attached to a laptop. Getty Images
The report adds that the company was reportedly so pleased with soaring revenues and profits amid a worldwide GPU shortage that it went a step further beyond solely awarding bonuses. There were apparently on-site rewards that saw employees receiving cars and cash prizes. It’s unclear exactly how many workers were given rewards. In any case, Asus employs 14,700 people worldwide, so it’s safe to say not everyone reaped the benefits from the bonus pot.
The company recently reported $19.3 billion in total revenue for 2021, a 30% increase from the previous year and its highest revenue total since 2010.
Asus is one of the world’s leading PC vendors by unit sales, so it’s no surprise that it has seen revenues soar thanks to the high demand for laptops and PCs due to the workforce largely migrating to a work-from-home role throughout 2021. However, the company also offers a range of products in the graphics cards market. The report mentions that prices for RTX 30 and RX 6000 series GPUs have doubled. Graphics cards from these two ranges are seemingly Asus’ most popular products in the video card market.
Due to the ongoing GPU shortage that initially materialized because of the pandemic, demand has substantially outweighed supply. This has allowed several companies to evidently benefit from the current shortage. Consumers, however, have had to battle it out against scalpers, bots, gamers, and crypto miners in securing the latest GPUs. Currently, prices for AMD and Nvidia video cards are nearly 100% over the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP).
Gamers have typically been the target market for new GPUs, but due to the increasing popularity of the crypto market, enthusiasts have also tapped into certain graphics cards’ ability to mine crypto. Crypto miners have thus provided GPU manufacturers with an additional source of revenue that’s proven to be extremely lucrative.
Crypto miners can potentially earn tens of thousands of dollars in a single day with the correct GPU setup, so expect demand for GPUs from this audience segment of the market to remain strong moving forward.
Nvidia even sells GPUs that have been tailored specifically for crypto miners. The company’s mainstream video cards such as the RTX 3080 12GB model offer incentives for crypto enthusiasts. In particular, the Lite Hash Rate (LHR) for the upgraded RTX 3080 is reported to be 20% faster at 52 MH/s over the 43 MH/s that the standard model offers. It also rereleased the RTX 2060 with a higher hash rate. The company’s most recent quarterly earnings report showed record revenues across its various segments (including gaming), so the GPU shortage has clearly positively impacted its bottom line.
Intel is going a step beyond selling GPUs capable of crypto mining with its “Bonanza Mine” ASIC chip, which has been specifically designed for Bitcoin mining purposes.
As for the GPU shortage, it’s set to continue throughout 2022. Semiconductor manufacturer TSMC is said to be increasing its prices for customers, some of whom include Nvidia and AMD, which will ultimately result in more expensive GPUs for consumers.