Core Scientific, the largest digital asset mining operation in North America, announced it has partnered with Bitmaintech Pte. Ltd (“Bitmain”), the industry-leading cryptocurrency mining equipment manufacturer, to become Bitmain’s cooperative repair center in North America. This partnership means that Core Scientific, led by the former COO of Microsoft, Kevin Turner, is the only cooperative North American repair center servicing and repairing Bitmain’s machines using original parts, materially reducing the downtime typically involved with sending machines to China for repair.
Over the past year, the digital asset mining industry in the United States has witnessed an uptick in activity with bitcoin hash rate increasing by 78% between September 2019 and April 2020, placing the U.S. just behind mining leader, China. As more mining equipment from Asia is imported to respond to rising institutional demand, miners require closer access to trained experts who can promptly diagnose problems and repair equipment with original parts to maintain competitive hashrates. Having a dedicated repair center within close proximity to miners will allow North American miners to remain hashrate competitive and profitable.
“Having a repair center close to miners in the United States is key to improving efficiency when it comes to repairing mining rigs,” said Kevin Turner, CEO of Core Scientific. “By eliminating the substantial economic and opportunity costs associated with sending equipment back to Asia to be fixed, we can help Bitmain – and the mining industry as a whole – continue to grow. Our skilled in-house engineering team is primed and ready, and will now have access to original replacement components to ensure units stay in warranty.”
As Bitmain’s cooperative repair center, Core Scientific will be able to perform repairs for any customer whose Antminer warranties have expired. Repairs will be completed by engineers who have attained Bitmain’s Ant Training Academy certification.
“Mining rigs run continuously all day, every day. It is inevitable that machines will require maintenance and repairs will need to be performed,” said Irene Gao, Antminer Sales Director of NCSA Region, Bitmain. “By opening a cooperative repair center stateside with a trusted partner, Core Scientific is helping Bitmain serve our customers and vice versa. We have enjoyed working together over the past three years and this latest partnership serves to support that.”
This announcement marks another important step in the relationship between Core Scientific and Bitmain. Most recently, Core Scientific expanded its inventory of machines by facilitating a record purchase of nearly 18,000 units of Bitmain bitcoin mining machines. Earlier this year, Core Scientific also launched the first Ant Training Academy outside of China which allows more North America-based participants to access Bitmain’s digital miner maintenance training and accreditation service.
