The Programmable Data Center — Evan Conrad, SF Compute

Key takeaways

• Compute sellers dump unreserved near-term capacity at steep discounts because an unsold GPU hour instantly loses all value once the clock runs out. Read more →
• Virtualized GPUs of the same SKU often suffer up to a 40 percent performance drop across different operators and configurations, which prevents compute from trading like a standard commodity contract. Read more →
• Trading compute looks like software until you have to physically deliver it, forcing SF Compute to run physical data center operations instead of staying a clean marketplace broker. Read more →
• Evan Conrad argues that pure cash-settled compute derivatives create severe basis risk because spot indexes track thin, unrepresentative transaction data. Read more →
• SF Compute partners directly with power owners and regional data centers to turn raw megawatts into institutional GPU clouds without owning real estate. Read more →
• Cloud operators like CoreWeave, Lambda, and Crusoe cannot build a GPU exchange because their direct hardware ownership invites market manipulation on forward contracts. Read more →