The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (U.S. derivatives regulator) is seeking public input on compute derivatives, a proposed market tied to the rental costs of Nvidia graphics-processing units used for artificial intelligence. On August 19, 2026, the agency opened a 60-day comment period focused on oversight, price discovery and risk management. CME Group has announced plans to launch futures contracts on October 5, 2026, tracking monthly rental costs for Nvidia’s H100 and Blackwell B200 chips. CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig called compute "the most important commodity of our day" at a White House event in August 2026. The initiative is part of the broader White House AI Action Plan and Selig has been working with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on what they describe as a national imperative to win the AI race. The proposed contracts could give institutional investors exposure to AI infrastructure costs without selecting individual companies or startups, while creating a mechanism for cloud providers, AI labs, chipmakers and financial firms to hedge price risk. Selig was confirmed as the 16th CFTC Chairman on December 22, 2025, after Senate approval on December 18. Nvidia’s central role as the supplier of the chips underlying the contracts could give it significant influence over supply dynamics. The comment process and the planned CME launch will indicate whether the industry supports treating computing capacity as a tradable and regulated critical resource.