CME Group and Silicon Data Launch World’s First AI Compute Futures Market

Quick Facts

• CME Group and Silicon Data announced the world’s first AI compute futures market, pending regulatory approval for later 2026
• Contracts will be based on Silicon Data’s daily GPU benchmark indices, allowing hedging of rental rate volatility in the multi-trillion-dollar compute market
• The move aims to bring standardized pricing and risk management to a fragmented market where H100 GPU rentals range from $2-$4.50 per hour at peak demand

CME Group, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, will launch compute futures contracts later this year in partnership with Silicon Data, the company announced May 12. The new market will allow traders and cloud providers to hedge against price volatility in GPU rental rates.

The futures contracts will be based on Silicon Data’s spot indices covering A100, H100, and B200 GPUs. These benchmarks are already distributed through Bloomberg and Refinitiv. Silicon Data is backed by trading firm DRW and provides daily GPU rental rate data to the industry.

“As the backbone of the digital economy, compute is the new oil of the 21st century,” said Terry Duffy, CME Group Chairman and CEO. “The launch of compute futures is an important step toward giving AI builders, cloud providers and investors more reliable tools for valuation, hedging and long-term planning.”

The global data center GPU market is projected to grow from $138.88 billion in 2026 to $624.17 billion by 2034. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta will spend a combined $325 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026, primarily on chips and data centers.

Current GPU pricing shows significant volatility. At peak demand, renting a single NVIDIA H100 GPU costs $2.00-$4.50 per hour on major cloud platforms. By mid-2026, H100 rental rates may fall below $2 per hour universally, while older GPUs like A100s could drop to under $1 per hour.

“Compute markets today are still highly fragmented, with pricing that can vary dramatically across providers, regions and contract structures,” said Carmen Li, CEO of Silicon Data. “We built our benchmarks to bring consistency, transparency and real-time visibility to GPU markets that have historically lacked standardized reference pricing.”

The new futures market will allow financial institutions, AI companies, and cloud service providers to manage price risk in compute capacity. Exchange-traded contracts could standardize hedging for GPU rental exposure and improve price transparency across the supply chain.

Don Wilson, founder and CEO of DRW, said compute “will become the largest commodity in the world.” He added that exponential growth in data center spending “has been hampered by the lack of a hedging vehicle.”

Silicon Data launched its GPU Forward Curve service last month, offering standardized pricing for future GPU capacity. The company has partnerships with NVIDIA and TSMC for supply-side market intelligence.

The CME contracts await regulatory approval. Final contract specifications will include settlement mechanics, reference GPU families, and regional coverage details.

Read more: CME Group and Silicon Data to launch AI compute futures market