Peer-to-peer rental index: NVIDIA H100 SXM5 (per-GPU-hour, verified hosts)
Fields
supply/rental-h100-sxm-vast-indexNotes
OBSERVATION DATE 2026-10-03. Source sup-price-vast-rental-api. BAND: n=14 verified 1-GPU H100 SXM hosts, range $1.6863-$3.5004/GPU-hr, median $2.4704. PER-GPU-HOUR, DERIVED: the API returns dph_total (USD/hr for the whole bundle) for multi-GPU nodes; dividing by num_gpus is my derivation, not a VAST-published per-card rate. CONFIGURATION EFFECT, measured not assumed: 8-GPU bundles are CHEAPER per card on the same platform (n=7, range $1.6808-$5.4736, median $2.3335 vs $2.4704 for 1-GPU), so any per-card figure must state the bundle size it came from. CROSS-CHECK against managed list pricing: RunPod lists H100 SXM 80GB at $3.49/hr for a managed instance with CPU/RAM attached (sup-price-runpod-on-demand). RunPod sits ABOVE this entire peer-to-peer band, which is the managed-vs-marketplace premium made visible. Both are kept, neither is averaged.
EXPORT CONTROL (2026-10-04, mechanism-level; sources spl-eccn-3a090-ccl, spl-bis-2026-01-advanced-computing-case-by-case, spl-bis-2026-05-d5-guidance): these parts classify under ECCN 3A090.a/.b, whose thresholds are 'total processing performance' (TPP) >= 4800, or TPP >= 1600 with performance density >= 5.92 (the .b band is TPP 2400-4800 with performance density 1.6-5.92, or TPP >= 1600 with performance density 3.2-5.92). The mechanism has THREE layers and all three must be cleared, not just one: (a) LICENSE FOR EXPORT FROM THE US - controlled by the January 2026 rule (91 FR 1684, effective 2026-01-15), which moved TPP < 21,000 AND total DRAM bandwidth < 6,500 GB/s parts from presumption of denial to CASE-BY-CASE REVIEW, but only for exports from the US to end users in China/Macau, and only against six exporter certifications - US supply sufficiency judged 'taking into account normal lead times', no diversion of foundry capacity away from US end users, aggregate China+Macau shipments capped at 50% of US end-use shipments, no end-user prohibition, consignee KYC procedures, and prior verification by a qualified third-party US testing lab of TPP, total DRAM bandwidth, interconnect bandwidth and copackaged DRAM capacity; (b) END-USER AND PARENT-COMPANY SCREENING under 742.6(a)(6)(iii)(A) - per BIS guidance of 2026-05-31 a licence is required where the consignee is HEADQUARTERED in Country Group D:5 or Macau OR ITS ULTIMATE PARENT is so headquartered, EVEN IF the consignee itself is outside D:5/Macau, which means the destination country alone never answers the question; (c) THE LIMITS THAT REMAIN - reexports and in-country transfers of the same chips to China/Macau remain PRESUMPTION OF DENIAL, and exports to D:5/Macau-headquartered or -parented entities remain presumption of denial wherever the buyer sits. The Jan-2025 AI Diffusion Rule was rescinded and not enforced from 2025-05-13, but that rescission did not remove (a) or (b). EXPORT CONTROL (2026-10-04, mechanism-level; sources spl-bis-2026-05-d5-guidance, spl-bis-2026-01-advanced-computing-case-by-case): renting capacity does NOT remove the export-control question, it relocates it. Providing remote access to controlled computing capability can constitute a transfer under the EAR, so the provider must screen the end user; and separately, under the 91 FR 1684 licence regime the consignee must run KYC procedures to prevent unauthorized remote access and must manage and limit IaaS access to the hardware - obligations pushed onto the customer, who must be told to implement them. For a customer headquartered or parented in Country Group D:5 or Macau the 742.6(a)(6)(iii)(A) end-user/parent test can bite even when the capacity is consumed in a permitted region. Recorded true because the underlying hardware is controlled and the provider carries the screening duty, not because access to a US region is itself restricted.
LEAD TIME: null - and specifically because a PEER-TO-PEER marketplace has no lead time at all. Host nodes appear and disappear, so the availability a buyer sees is a snapshot of what some host posted on the observation date, not a schedulable delivery date. This is the widest availability uncertainty in the whole supply set and it is structural rather than a missing datum: it argues directly for the renting-over-buying decision this record feeds. Probe log in source spl-negative-no-oem-publishes-lead-time.