What happens to GPU rental prices and resale values when new chips arrive?
By Nathan Benaich (Air Street Capital)
Evidence reviewed · October 11, 2026
New chips can put pressure on older GPUs’ rental prices and resale values when they deliver the same workload at lower total cost. A launch does not dictate an immediate or uniform price drop: availability, demand, software compatibility, and the cost of adapting power and cooling also matter. Rental prices measure payment for access; resale prices measure what a buyer will pay to own the hardware. Neither is the same as accounting book value or an operator’s profit.
How to read this finding
Contract structure matters. CoreWeave’s 2025 annual report describes committed contracts generally lasting one to six years, typically with take-or-pay terms, alongside hourly on-demand services. Those terms can delay repricing compared with new rentals; renewal economics remain a separate question. NVIDIA’s October 2026 account cites CoreWeave A100 bookings extending through 2029, a vendor-reported example of continued demand, not a market-wide price series or proof of future margins. The index does not track rental transactions or resale prices and therefore cannot quantify a depreciation curve. Compare equivalent GPU configurations, regions, contract terms, and service bundles before drawing a price trend.
Company filings and hardware documentation reviewed October 11, 2026. Accounting examples use 2025 annual reports; vendor claims are attributed. Research citations do not measure profitability, and this index has no rental-price or resale-value series.
Benaich, Nathan. “What happens to GPU rental prices and resale values when new chips arrive?” State of AI Report Compute Index. Web page updated 2026-10-11; data periods as specified above.
