29 September 2026
GPUs are the next asset class
NVIDIA wants GPUs to be an investable asset class. It has been done before with hard assets that lose value fast. Aircraft are the example. Their owners write off the depreciation and collect passive income and target payback in 2 to 3 years.
Here is the catch. GPU prices are in a squeeze right now.
B300 quotes have risen another 10% in the past month. NVIDIA has announced another rate hike for January. Nebius is raising GPU prices 20% effective October 1. The cloud computing industry is thriving. Server equity is appreciating. Rent is going up. Cost basis stays the same.
So is NVIDIA taking precautionary steps to safeguard the AI economy from unwinding? Is it trying to head off a catastrophe from the estimated $1.65T in off-balance-sheet data center debt? Or is it opening the door to 10x growth in compute?
Every business will need its own GPU server or else pay enterprise SaaS markups and accept privacy vulnerabilities. Businesses must be able to finance these servers to meet that demand elastically. Each one costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Integration with the rental market for cash flow projection and insurance underwriting is how that happens.