The real savings from ASICBoost to BitmainTech
We found ASICBoost independently in the beginning of 2014. We called it Merkle Collisions and patented it also, but only later. ASICBoost saves about 15% in electricity once you actually implement it in a chip.
If we assume that BitmainTech directly control 500 PH/s (they control less in my estimation) of S9 machines (power efficiency at the wall of about 0.1 J/GH), then assuming they deploy in their data center in Sichuan (sub 0.03 $/KWh), the total annual savings are:
500 / 0.1 X 15% X 24 X 365 X 0.03 X 1,000 ~= $2M
Those numbers are easily verifiable. I believe their claim about not activating ASICBoost. It is very small money for them.
Guy