Silicon Data Raises $30.5 Million as CME Plans GPU Futures

Silicon Data is developing price indexes and performance benchmarks for artificial-intelligence computing, seeking to make GPU capacity easier to compare across hardware, suppliers and locations. The effort is gaining importance as companies pour capital into AI infrastructure while buyers, lenders and investors lack standardized tools to value computing resources, verify performance and manage exposure to swings in capacity costs.

Silicon Data said it raised $30.5 million to expand its AI-compute pricing and benchmarking services. CME Group is also planning what would be the world’s first GPU futures contract linked to the startup’s benchmarks. The proposed product would give market participants a standardized reference for trading and hedging AI-compute costs, extending the financial infrastructure around a resource increasingly treated as a critical commodity.