China is designing a futures market keyed to the price of processing AI requests, Reuters reported, signaling a new race among traditional financial players to provide a venue for investors to speculate on the cost of artificial intelligence. According to the article, the Shanghai Futures Exchange is designing a contract focused on the cost of AI tokens. (This refers to AI input and output tokens, often quoted in terms of dollars per million, and is not to be confused with crypto tokens.) As the article states: "The move comes as the CME Group, opens new tab and Intercontinental Exchange, opens new tab in the U.S. are preparing to launch GPU compute futures, which are tied to the cost of renting the computing ⁠power for AI." DeAI takeaway: These efforts by traditional futures exchanges could rival any efforts by crypto firms to offer blockchain-based markets focused on AI prices.