China crypto firm Bitmain plans first US factory in Trump gambit
The company intends to officially open a new headquarters and assembly line in either Texas or Florida by the end of the third quarter. Initial output is expected in early 2026, with full-scale production ramping up later in the year, according to Irene Gao, Bitmain's global business chief.
The move reflects the renewed wave of American industrial policy favouring domestic production, and operational necessity. As Washington reshapes supply chains around national industrial policies, crypto mining, once a fringe pursuit, is joining the ranks of strategic industries, such as semiconductors and energy.
Bitmain expects local production to speed up deliveries and repairs for US customers, Gao said. Labour costs are higher, she added, but the move still makes commercial sense, especially in light of uncertainty around tariffs.
The US push for Bitcoin supremacy represents 'a unique opportunity', said Gao, Bitmain's president of mining and chief global business officer.
Bitmain holds a commanding share of the market for computers used to mine crypto, but US President Donald Trump's trade war has disrupted its American business. Shipments from the Beijing-based company have been held up amid heightened Customs and Border Protection scrutiny, while in January the US Commerce Department blacklisted its artificial-intelligence affiliate, accusing it of 'acting at the behest of Beijing to further the PRC's goals of indigenous advanced chip production'.
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Further complicating matters is Trump's campaign-trail pledge to concentrate Bitcoin mining activity in the US. Bitmain announced the launch of a US facility about a month after his November 2024 election victory, without divulging its location.
Gao said that Bitmain intends to hire 250 local employees in the first phase, trained for both manufacturing and site-level maintenance.
Bitcoin miners use specialised computers to solve mathematical problems in order to verify blockchain transactions and earn rewards. It's a market Bitmain has dominated since 2013 despite significant changes in the makeup of the energy-intensive industry.
Now though with Chinese supply chains under fire and US crypto firms gaining political clout, Bitmain is pushing to secure access to US markets. The US is considered the mining sector's global fulcrum, rising to the fore after a ban in China. Publicly listed American miners, such as Mara Holdings, Riot Platforms and CleanSpark, are collectively worth tens of billions of US dollars.
Trump's sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr have helped to set up a crypto mining venture named American Bitcoin, in partnership with Hut 8 and a group of investors. Hut 8 in November 2024 announced the purchase of 31,145 Bitmain machines to upgrade its mining fleet, with delivery expected early 2025.
Bitmain's current production capacity includes facilities spread across South-east Asia, a region vulnerable to stiff trade-protection measures from the Trump administration.
What obstacles Bitmain may encounter as it seeks a foothold in the US remain to be seen. Chinese Bitcoin miners operating on US soil drew scrutiny over security concerns during former president Joe Biden's administration. US regulators have not clarified whether crypto hardware will be subject to the same export checks as artificial-intelligence chips.
Bitmain has maintained its lead through proprietary technology that enables mass production of powerful mining chips at low cost. While a flurry of US-based companies, including Jack Dorsey's Block and Mara Holdings-backed Auradine, have entered the mining hardware business, they are yet to match the global scale of China's top manufacturers. BLOOMBERG
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