(Publisher: Hint... they'll shift production to Artificial Intelligence,... with lots of money and capacity. Get ready, here it comes)

With demand for cryptocurrency mining hardware having sharply declined following the onslaught of 2018's bear market, reports are indicating the companies operating in the supply chain behind mining hardware are increasingly seeking alternative revenue streams to offset falling demand from the mining industry.

Cryptocurrency Bubble Pops for Mining Hardware Supply Chain

Between April 2017 and March 2018, the virtual currency mining hardware manufacturing industry appeared unstoppable. Last year, the multi-year cryptocurrency bull trend was accelerating toward its peak, drawing with it unprecedented media coverage of the virtual currency markets.

With demand for mining hardware at unprecedented levels, companies operating within the supply chain manufacturing mining devices were reporting record sales and witnessing all-time high stock prices. At one point, China's leading ASICs supplier, Bitmain, was briefly ranked as one of the top ten clients of the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).

Profit Projections Slashed

According to a report from Digitimes, the party is well and truly over for Taiwanese suppliers of graphics processing units (GPUs), who "have seen their inventories pick up rapidly, and their sales prices have declined to the levels seen in early 2017." The report, citing "industry sources," asserts that "[GPU] suppliers may be forced to return to the gaming market to renew growth momentum in second of the second half of 2018."