Primers · Monitors · Dispatches as of 2026-10-09

Research

Research on compute as a financial asset: how GPUs are rented, valued, financed and traded.

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Primers · the model

Start here The GPU as an Income Asset Earning power, collateral, and the published rate — the model the rest of this research runs on, and why a lease rate sits under every GPU-credit question. Read the primer →

The Compute Contract How GPU-hours are sold, from terms of service to SEC-filed take-or-pay master agreements — including the termination formula that prices the on-demand spread. The GPU SPV How lenders take compute as collateral: serial-number covenants, UCC account control, contract-realization tests, and a rating that travels with the offtake. A Compute Glossary for Finance FLOPS, bandwidth, TDP, PUE, MFU, NVL72, training vs. inference — the vocabulary of compute paper, defined in finance terms.

Monitors

Updated daily · live data

Credit

GPU-Backed Credit The debt stack behind AI compute, as filed — every instrument traced to a public document. Credit Reference Series Spread at signing, refinancing velocity, and lender-filed fair-value marks — arithmetic on filed numbers only.

Term & Price

Committed Term Structure Posted committed asks by tenor — one month to a year, per chip.

Demand & Utilization

Realized vs Rate Card Per-GPU-hour realization from public filings — well below posted rate cards. Availability & Utilization How much of the tracked fleet is rented versus idle, and how many venues have capacity.

Asset Economics

Chip Economics The daily rate re-denominated per GB, per TB/s, per PFLOP, per kW.

Market Structure

Compute Derivatives at the CFTC The CFTC’s consultation on compute derivatives: what the Commission asked, the comment letters filed and posted outside the docket, and statements on the record. Comments close October 20.

Dispatches

Dated · newest first

2026-10-03 Sale-Leasebacks (GPUs’ Version)Credit Companies that sell GPUs they own and rent them back. Valor and xAI is the largest filed case, about $13.3 billion across three leases, funded mostly with debt. 2026-10-02 How Nscale Finances Its GPUsCredit Five ways of borrowing against GPUs in one filing. Microsoft-backed debt pays SOFR plus 2.375%; loans on smaller or undisclosed customers pay 5.5% to 7.5% over SOFR plus a minimum return. 2026-09-27 When GPU Contracts BreakCredit What happens when a GPU contract breaks, from 38 cases on record. Northern Data re-let 22,352 GPUs in about three quarters. CCIR stress ranges are computed from today’s hardware values. 2026-09-25 Data-Center Bonds Price the TenantCredit AI data-center bond coupons sorted by who stands behind the lease. Hyperscaler-leased bonds priced at 5.70% to 7.875%; CoreWeave-leased bonds at 7.00% to 9.875%. 2026-09-24 B300 Contract Prices Since MarchTerm Eleven B300 rental contracts disclosed since March show three-year rates up about 25%. On a three-year contract for 10,000 GPUs, the move is about $220 million. 2026-07-30 Implied Committed Rates: What the Big Compute Deals Pay per GPU-HourTerm The multi-year compute mega-deals are committed-term prints disclosed as lump sums. Backed out and graded by disclosure quality: Narvik $2.72/GPU-hr with every input company-disclosed, an A-graded $5.27 fee-basis print from the SpaceX prospectus, and why every figure is a floor by construction. 2026-07-17 A GPU Lease Rate Enters the Rating CaseCredit Fitch’s July 16 rating case for CoreWeave’s DDTL 5.5 leads with a new assumption: expiring contracts renew “at favorable GPU lease rates.” 2026-07-12 Same Facility, Different MarksCredit Four advisers file 99.0 / 100.0 / 102.0 / 103.1 on one GPU-backed facility at one date — marked like performing credit, dispersed like stressed. 2026-07-08 Rent and MSRP: Five Generations of Posted PricesAsset economics Every generation’s gross posted-rate revenue passed its MSRP within 11–17 months; acquisition cost per unit of bandwidth fell 2.5×, rent per unit did not. 2026-07-08 GPU Rental Rates by Generation: Nine Years of Posted PricesAsset economics Per-generation histories, 2017–2026: declines arrive in steps set by the repricers, interrupted twice by demand. 2026-07-08 Betting on the Residual: Itel and the IBM 4300, 1979Precedent The largest independent computer lessor in the world, residual-dependent leases, and the machine that obsoleted the inventory — a $433M loss ($2B today). 2026-07-06 Rent and Age: Five GenerationsAsset economics One date, five generations: rent falls about 21% per year of age, with no extra discount once capability is taken out. Updated 2026-09-29. 2026-07-06 The Commitment Discount: Three Years of H100 Posted PricesTerm Neocloud H100, Oct 2023 – Jun 2026: a persistent committed discount, a $2.80 on-demand floor through 2025, a turn upward since December.