The Chicago Mercantile Exchange is set to introduce futures contracts for AI compute, framing it as the new currency for the AI economy. Pete Keavey, the CME executive, stated that these contracts will standardize and trade compute similarly to how oil derivatives evolved. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink anticipates a new asset class will trade these futures.
Boston Consulting Group projects the AI compute market to grow from $360bn in 2025 to $2.3tn by 2030. However, research indicates that two-thirds to three-quarters of new futures contracts fail. For compute derivatives to succeed, prices must be volatile enough for hedging; long lead times and chip bottlenecks, like those affecting Nvidia’s H100 chips, create this volatility.
CME Group, with Silicon Data, has chosen Nvidia’s H100 and B200 chips as references, with rental rates of $2.77 and $5.86 per hour respectively. Contracts will extend 36 months, but standardization remains challenging due to varying performance and lack of consensus on measurement, as seen with competing index providers like Ornn.
المصدر: Financial Times Markets · لخّصه HeadlinesBriefing