So, how much it cost to mine 1 BTC if you are the ASIC chip/equipment manufacturer like AM is?
By my calculations, USD 0.507 in electricity costs per btc mined.
The assumptions:
Power efficiency: 8.3 J/GH (ref:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=204030.0)
Electricity cost: USD 0.06 per kWh (was mentioned by someone earlier in this thread, cannot find official confirmation)
Current hashes to win: 91635939047418116 (ref:
http://blockexplorer.com/q/hashestowin)
Current Bitcoin reward per block: 25 (
http://blockexplorer.com/q/bcperblock)
So it will remain profitable (i.e. value of mined BTC exceeds electricity costs) until network hash rate is more than 100x today's hash rate at current prices.