Compute Exchange's Simeon Bochev on Making a Market for Compute

By now, you’ve heard how expensive AI is to train and run. McKinsey estimates the boom could require nearly $7 trillion in data center investment by 2030. Numbers that big are hard to wrap your head around. Even harder to grasp: buyers of computing power have almost nothing to benchmark against. There’s no Expedia for compute the way there is for flights. It’s hard to know if what you’re paying is “fair” or “market rate.” It’s similar to calling around plumbers for quotes to fix a busted pipe. And how do you keep track of how much compute you’re using? Does that match your invoice? Today, there’s very little standardization. That gap is what Simeon Bochev is betting on. His startup, Compute Exchange, is building a marketplace to treat compute more like a commodity. I spoke with him about how this market could evolve, why he teamed up with DRW’s Don Wilson, and where he thinks compute belongs on the spectrum between oil, electricity, and currency. As AI costs balloon and more companies

By now, you’ve heard how expensive AI is to train and run. McKinsey estimates the boom could require nearly $7 trillion in data center investment by 2030. Numbers that big are hard to wrap your head around. Even harder to grasp: buyers of computing power have almost nothing to benchmark against. There’s no Expedia for compute the way there is for flights. It’s hard to know if what you’re paying is “fair” or “market rate.” It’s similar to calling around plumbers for quotes to fix a busted pipe. And how do you keep track of how much compute you’re using? Does that match your invoice? Today, ther