The world's largest producer of bitcoin mining chips, Bitmain Technologies, might be considering going public.

Bitmain's founder, the cryptocurrency billionaire Jihan Wu, told Bloomberg that Bitmain was considering an initial public offering as it expands into producing hardware for artificial-intelligence computing.

Bitmain Technologies, the world's largest producer of bitcoin mining chips, might be considering an initial public offering, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

The company, run by the cryptocurrency billionaire Jihan Wu, has become a global force in the burgeoning cryptocurrency mining industry since it was founded five years ago.

Bitmain told Bloomberg Businessweek last month that it made $2.5 billion in revenue in 2017 alone. Now the company's success might have Wu, 32, considering taking it public.

Recently, Bitmain has been tinkering with another kind of hardware beyond mining chips. The company has expressed interest in developing custom chips to compute in the field of artificial intelligence, called application-specific integrated circuits.

Wu suggested to Bloomberg that Bitmain's interest in expanding into AI hardware might eventually lead to an IPO. The listing, Wu said, would most likely occur overseas; Hong Kong was mentioned as a possible option.

"Bitmain is trying very hard to maintain its advantage," Wu told Bloomberg.