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Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 23, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Does anyone know anything about buying a financialized version of compute, like one would buy shares in a company? I don't mean buying a token that gives you a claim on some given amount of server time but buying something that means you get the net profit from a certain set of physical processors, without actually buying the chips and getting them delivered to you.

I know you can rent compute for a given task, it's all in some great big server somewhere. But can you buy it? Say you thought that there was going to be even more of an AI boom, could you buy some compute and then rent it out, making a profit and selling it onto someone else? Could you short compute if you thought it was all overhyped?

I suppose compute is not like houses in that it gets obsolete fairly quickly, that might complicate investment. I know people don't usually buy shares in trucks or a C&C machine, they buy shares in companies.

But can you buy it? Say you thought that there was going to be even more of an AI boom, could you buy some compute and then rent it out, making a profit and selling it onto someone else? Could you short compute if you thought it was all overhyped?

You'd buy a contract giving you rights to X quantity, which you would then resell. Buying/Selling in this case is more Master/Sub lease.

As for shorting, you might be able to manually do it, but I doubt there's an exchange putting that together in a securitized way that would be protected from reneging on the bargain.