Deep Dive: The Next Trillion-Dollar Futures Market

AI capex hit $765B in 2026, passing oil and gas for the first time. The resource powering AI is getting its first futures contract. Here is what has to be true for it to work…

“I actually believe a new asset class will be buying futures of compute. We just don’t have enough compute power right now.” - Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock This week, he was proven right. CME Group, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, and Silicon Data, the industry leader in GPU market intelligence and benchmarking, announced plans to launch compute futures contracts on October 5, 2026, pending regulatory review. Why does compute need a financial market? In 2026, AI capex reached $765B, passing oil and gas capex at $681B for the first time. By 2031, it is projected to nearly…