Silicon Data has raised $30 million in Series A funding to establish a reference price for GPU rental and create an index for Wall Street futures contracts.
The company intends to launch compute futures trading on the CME on October 5th, pending regulatory approval. This move addresses the lack of straightforward pricing mechanisms for compute, which now represents the single biggest cost for firms building AI products amid hundreds of billions of dollars in annual data centre spending. By providing a standardised metric, the startup allows financial institutions to hedge exposure when prices fluctuate. Steve Hou, head of research at Silicon Data, notes that data suggests the AI buildout remains healthy despite headlines about depreciating chips and stalled infrastructure.
