Market Brief: Monday, September 28, 2026

Today's lesson

What is AI Data Center Cooling Density?

AI data center cooling density describes the heat-removal capacity required by concentrated GPU racks. Why it matters today: Today's lesson connects the Power & Data Centers track to the compute market readers are watching.

Term of the Day

Stranded capacity

Stranded capacity is infrastructure that has been paid for but is not being productively used. In AI compute, this could mean underused GPUs, power commitments, data center space, or reserved cloud capacity. Stranded capacity can happen if demand forecasts are wrong or workloads shift.

H100 IndexiWhat it costs to rent one H100 GPU for an hour on demand — the market’s anchor price.

Value

$4.12 / H100-hr

Last Price Change

Sep 16, 2026

Spot Compute PriceiThe cheaper, interruptible GPU price — a read on whether spare capacity is available.

Value

$2.46 / H100e-hourH100e-hour means an H100-equivalent GPU hour, a normalized unit used to compare different GPUs and providers.

Last Price Change

May 27, 2026

Model Serving CostiRoughly what it costs to run a model and generate its output at scale, per million tokens.

Value

$2.78 / 1M tokens

Last Price Change

Aug 8, 2026

GPU AvailabilityiHow easy or hard it is to actually get GPU capacity right now, scored 0–100.

Value

83 / 100 score

Last change

Sep 17, 2026

Sep 25, 2026

Nscale Raises $3.36 Billion in Pre-IPO Convertible Financing Read Article

The source for “Nscale Raises $3.36 Billion in Pre-IPO Convertible Financing Read Article” does not yet establish a supported change in compute supply, demand, price, availability, power delivery, financing, or deployment timing.

Sep 25, 2026

DOE unveils $1.9bn in funding for 31 grid upgrade projects to speed data center connections

The project described in “DOE unveils $1.9bn in funding for 31 grid upgrade projects to speed data center connections” adds prospective compute capacity, but permitting, power procurement, construction, and deployment timing prevent it from increasing immediately available GPU supply.

Sep 25, 2026

Google-backed Fervo Energy achieves first power at up to 900MW Cape Station geothermal plant in Utah

The source for “Google-backed Fervo Energy achieves first power at up to 900MW Cape Station geothermal plant in Utah” does not yet establish a supported change in compute supply, demand, price, availability, power delivery, financing, or deployment timing.

Sep 27, 2026

Claude Opus 5.5 comes to Microsoft Foundry for long-running coding and knowledge work

The source for “Claude Opus 5.5 comes to Microsoft Foundry for long-running coding and knowledge work” does not yet establish a supported change in compute supply, demand, price, availability, power delivery, financing, or deployment timing.

Sep 27, 2026

GPT-6 Astra, Sol, and Luna: For production agents in Microsoft Foundry

The source for “GPT-6 Astra, Sol, and Luna: For production agents in Microsoft Foundry” does not yet establish a supported change in compute supply, demand, price, availability, power delivery, financing, or deployment timing.

H100 GPU Pricing Report: August 2026

Canonical CT-H100 median, reviewed H100 provider rows, freshness dates, and composition caveats in one citable report.

Previous issue: Market Brief: Friday, September 25, 2026

Efforts to curb data center speculation gain ground across the US