# Carmen Li

> Carmen Li is the New York-based founder and CEO of Silicon Data and CEO of Compute Exchange. Drawing on experience at DRW, American Express, Citi and Bloomberg, she is building pricing indices, performance benchmarks and market infrastructure for AI compute. Silicon Data’s rental indices are the reference benchmarks for CME Group’s proposed H100 and B200 futures, which remain under regulatory review as of October 25, 2026.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Silicon Data; CEO at Compute Exchange
- **Organizations:** Silicon Data, Compute Exchange, DRW, American Express, Citi, Bloomberg
- **Education:** Studied finance and computer science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Harvard Business School
- **Known for:** Founded Silicon Data in April 2024., Led a business whose daily GPU rental indices were selected for CME Group’s proposed H100 and B200 futures., Silicon Data announced $4.7 million in seed funding and a $30.5 million initial Series A closing.

## Career timeline

- **Early life** — Grew up in Hangzhou, China; accepted a scholarship to study in Singapore at age 15.
- **—** — Studied finance and computer science at Illinois, then built valuation models and trading platforms at DRW before trading.
- **—** — Attended Harvard Business School after five years at DRW; later worked at American Express, Citi and Bloomberg.
- **2024-04** — Founded Silicon Data after a March conversation with DRW founder Don Wilson about compute-price risk.
- **2025-05** — Silicon Data announced its $4.7 million seed financing and daily H100 rental index.
- **2025-10** — Publicly announced her dual CEO role at Silicon Data and Compute Exchange.
- **2026-05** — CME Group announced plans for compute futures referencing Silicon Data indices, subject to regulatory review.
- **2026-08** — Silicon Data announced a $30.5 million initial Series A closing led by the Valor Atreides AI Fund.

## Achievements

- Founded Silicon Data in April 2024.
- Led a business whose daily GPU rental indices were selected for CME Group’s proposed H100 and B200 futures.
- Silicon Data announced $4.7 million in seed funding and a $30.5 million initial Series A closing.
- Leads both a compute-data business and a compute marketplace.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — Appeared on Pitch The PM to discuss compute hedging, token pricing, index neutrality and hiring as the companies grow.
- **2026-09** — Discussed index construction and forward curves on Where Capital Meets Compute.
- **2026-09** — CFTC extended review of proposed Silicon Data H100 and B200 rental-index futures through November 9; CME’s revised listing notice gives the trade date as TBD.
- **2026-08** — Silicon Data announced a $30.5 million initial Series A closing.

## Links

- Website: https://www.silicondata.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmenrli
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/carmenli

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/carmen-li
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-25