US regulators postpone approval of AI chip rental price futures for at least 60 days

According to the Financial Times, U.S. financial market regulators have delayed approval of futures contracts linked to AI chip rental prices, frustrating plans for exchanges to launch the first computing power futures market. Such contracts allow traders to place bets on the rental prices of AI chips. According to sources familiar with the matter, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has decided to extend the review period for such contracts by at least 60 days. This means that related trading activities will be postponed until at least early 2027. The decision has not yet been made public. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) had previously hoped to launch as early as October futures contracts for graphics processing units (GPU) tied to the rental prices of two Nvidia (NVDA.US) chips, the H100 and B200. The associated price index was designed by start-up Silicon Data. The delay comes as regulators are seeking public input on how to manage risks in the emerging computing power market. Currently, online trading platforms already offer spot price trading for computing power, but there is not yet a public futures market for longer-term contracts.