Compute is about to become the next big commodity in advertising.The economics demand it. AI has gotten expensive enough, fast enough, that holdco CEOs are now being asked outright how funding it won’t come at the expense of staying profitable. The IAB Europe’s chief economist Daniel Knapp put it plainly: “No one really knows quite yet how to price that in, so you’re seeing the business sort of try and come up with solutions to try and figure that out.”
One answer being floated: turn the holdco itself into a futures market for tokens, whereby they buy them in bulk ahead of demand, price the risk, and sell it on with a margin attached. Some are already doing it, baking token costs into principal media deals.
It’s the same model holdcos have run for years across media and data. Compute is just the latest thing running through that same machine. And just like those other times, the approach has divided opinion. In a last week, 42% of 58 respondents said agencies shouldn’t become futures markets for tokens at all. Fewer than 10% called it a legitimate new revenue opportunity. The largest swing vote — 36% — landed on maybe, conditional on transparency.
Here’s the case for and against.
Case for
