Secretive Bitmain slowly reveals itself — with an IPO possibly in its sights
Hong Kong — With his baby face, eyeglasses and go-to outfit of T-shirt, jeans and sneakers, Jihan Wu looks more like a geeky teenager than a self-made billionaire. But thanks to an early foray into crypto-currencies, the soft-spoken 32-year-old is sitting on what may be one of the industry’s largest fortunes. Wu runs Bitmain Technologies, the world’s dominant producer of crypto-currency mining chips. The Chinese company has been shrouded in secrecy since its founding five years ago, but Wu is gradually lifting the veil — and revealing clues about his personal wealth — as he pursues an expansion beyond the crypto-sphere that may eventually lead to an initial public offering (IPO). In an interview with Bloomberg News, Wu said Bitmain booked $2.5bn of revenue last year and that he and co-founder Micree Zhan together own about 60% of the business. While Bitmain has few direct comparables, applying a multiple similar to that of publicly traded chip makers such as Nvidia and MediaTek woul...
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