CME Group Inc. Class A (CME.US) collaborates with Silicon Data to launch computing power futures! Targeting a new asset class in the AI era.

As the AI boom continues, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME.US) is partnering with market intelligence company Silicon Data to launch futures contracts based on computational power - the core driving factor of this AI trend - later this year, aiming to provide market participants with a new tool to hedge price fluctuations. The computational power futures product is currently awaiting regulatory approval. With AI companies increasingly using computational power for model training and system deployment, the demand for computational power is rising, and the resulting price fluctuations are becoming an important variable affecting the stability of businesses in the industry chain. According to a joint statement released by the two companies on Tuesday, the computational power futures product will be based on the computational power index compiled by Silicon Data, helping traders, financial institutions, AI developers, and cloud service providers manage the risk of computational power price fluctuations. The arrival of computational power futures also aligns with market expectations for the securitization of computational power assets. BlackRock, Inc., a global asset management giant, CEO Larry Fink said last week that given the short supply of computational power and strong demand, computational power futures are likely to become an important investment target for a new type of asset. CME CEO Terry Duffy stated in the announcement, "As the pillar of the digital economy, computational power is the new oil of the 21st century. Every AI model training, every transaction clearing, and every byte of data processing relies on computational power, and computational power is rapidly becoming a new asset class." It is worth noting that the implementation of computational power futures requires support from benchmark pricing, and Silicon Data has experience in this area. Silicon Data currently publishes daily benchmark prices for GPU (graphics processor) on-demand rental rates, providing a key cost reference for AI developers and computational power demanders. Reports suggest that the GPU benchmark index compiled by Silicon Data will be used as the pricing basis for the computational power futures products to be launched by CME, providing underlying data support for contract settlement.