Asus offers big bonuses based on crypto mining GPU demand

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Thanks to an increase in profits due to the demand for GPUs capable of mining cryptocurrency, Asus has reportedly distributed considerable bonuses to employees.

According to a report from MyDrivers, spotted by Wccftech, the Taiwanese hardware company awarded bonuses of up to $55,000 to employees.

A cryptocurrency mining rig attached to a laptop computer. Getty Images

The report adds that the company would have been so pleased with its soaring revenue and profits amid a global GPU shortage that it went further than awarding bonuses. There were apparently on-site rewards that saw employees receive cars and cash prizes. It is unclear exactly how many workers received awards. Either way, Asus employs 14,700 people worldwide, so it’s safe to say that not everyone reaped the benefits of the bonus pot.

The company recently announced total revenue of $19.3 billion for 2021, a 30% increase over the previous year and its highest revenue since 2010.

Asus is one of the world’s leading PC vendors by unit sales, so it’s no surprise that it’s seen its revenue skyrocket on the back of strong demand for laptops and PCs due to migrating the workforce largely to working from home throughout 2021. However, the company also offers a range of products in the graphics card market. The report mentions that the prices of the RTX 30 and RX 6000 series GPUs have doubled. Graphics cards from these two lines are apparently the most popular Asus products on the video card market.

Due to the continued shortage of GPUs that initially materialized due to the pandemic, demand has far exceeded supply. This has obviously allowed several companies to take advantage of the current shortage. Consumers, however, have had to battle scalpers, bots, gamers, and crypto miners to secure the latest GPUs. Currently, AMD and Nvidia video card prices are almost 100% above the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP).

Gamers have typically been the target market for newer GPUs, but due to the growing popularity of the crypto market, enthusiasts have also taken advantage of some graphics cards’ ability to mine crypto. Crypto miners have thus provided GPU manufacturers with an additional source of revenue that has proven to be extremely lucrative.

Crypto miners can potentially earn tens of thousands of dollars in a single day with the correct GPU configuration, so expect GPU demand from this market audience segment to remain strong going forward.

Nvidia even sells GPUs specifically designed for crypto miners. The company’s consumer video cards, such as the RTX 3080 12GB model, offer incentives for crypto enthusiasts. In particular, the Lite Hash Rate (LHR) of the upgraded RTX 3080 is said to be 20% faster at 52 MH/s compared to the 43 MH/s offered by the standard model. It also re-released the RTX 2060 with a higher hash rate. The company’s most recent quarterly earnings report showed record revenue across its various segments (including gaming), so the GPU shortage has clearly had a positive impact on its bottom line.

Intel is going a step further than selling cryptocurrency-capable GPUs with its “Bonanza Mine” ASIC chip, which was specifically designed for Bitcoin mining purposes.

As for the GPU shortage, it is expected to continue throughout 2022. Semiconductor maker TSMC is reportedly raising prices for customers including Nvidia and AMD, which will ultimately result in more expensive GPUs for consumers.

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