Certainly its better news than 'the chip doesnt work', but these are a few samples on a shared multiproject wafer. The idea is to be able to tweak the design before producing a full mask set. That means that mask set isnt done yet, and it will probably be 3+ months before production chips arrive if they were ordered today.

At least bitfury and spondoolies promised 0.2J/GH at the wall late this year or early next year (and twice that efficiency next year). Assuming they, or bitmain or anyone else, can achieve that, AM will be a fews months behind and with worse efficiency (*). Hardly a better competitive situation than BE200 was in, and that wasnt exactly a commercial slam dunk.

Its a shame friedcat didnt trust his design enough to go for full mask sets directly, that would have been something to be "super stoked" about. Now, its mostly a matter of hoping the competition doesnt meet its goals.

(*) numbers are still being updated and probably relate to few, possibly just 1 chip, so they may still change.