# Meet the startup helping Wall Street put a price on AI compute > Source: > Published: 2026-08-19 17:26:48+00:00 The AI buildout shows no signs of slowing. And with hundreds of billions of dollars a year going into data centers and GPUs, compute has become the single biggest cost for anyone building AI products. But for all that spending, there still isn’t a straightforward way to put a price on compute — or for firms to hedge their exposure when the price changes. Silicon Data just closed a $30 million Series A to change that. The startup aims to become the reference price for GPU rental and an index that a Wall Street futures contract would settle against. The company plans to launch its compute futures trading [on the CME October 5th](https://www.cmegroup.com/media-room/press-releases/2026/8/11/cme_group_and_silicondatatolaunchcomputefuturesonoctober5tounloc.html), pending regulatory approval. On this episode of TechCrunch’s[ Equity](https://techcrunch.com/podcasts/equity/) podcast, Rebecca Bellan is joined by [Steve Hou](https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-hou-001/), head of research at Silicon Data, to discuss the health of the AI buildout, and why the data is telling a different story than the doom and gloom headlines about depreciating chips and [stalled](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/04/texas-halts-new-data-centers-as-governor-calls-for-audits/) [data centers](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/14/new-york-state-halts-construction-of-all-new-data-centers/). Subscribe to Equity on [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@TechCrunch),[ Apple Podcasts](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1215439780),[ Overcast](https://overcast.fm/itunes1215439780/equity),[ Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/5IEYLip3eDppcOmy5DmphC?si=rZDFHv2sQUul_g94iCRgpQ) and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on[ X](https://twitter.com/EquityPod) and[ Threads](https://www.threads.net/@equitypod), at @EquityPod.