[SMM Computing Power Daily] H100 Western Long-Term Contract Market Entry Drives Spot Pricing Higher, 5090 Complete Machine Procurement Prices Rise

SMM News, August 18:

H100: Closed-End Long-Term Deal Reached for 64-Card Cluster in Ulanqab, Western Spot Pricing Moves Higher

SMM learned that on August 18, the market released spot supply of an H100 80G server cluster in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia. The cluster, with a scale of 64 cards and located at an operator's data center, was transacted under 4-year/5-year closed-end long-term agreements, with monthly rent of 75,000-76,000 yuan/unit; the resources did not support splitting and could not be relocated. This supply source did not accept channel intermediaries, and intermediary resale fees had to be negotiated separately with the owner. The supply information circulated among multiple clients. One client wanted to take only 16 units and sign a 3-year closed-end contract, but the owner temporarily did not split orders and was trying to consolidate orders. Another client said the closed-end quote was above its own cost line. Driven by this, the SMM-H100-80G complete-server western monthly lease average price was raised by 1.59% to 13.45 yuan/card/hour, and the lowest monthly rent in the west rose to 75,500 yuan (up 3.42%). With training and inference demand diverging, prices of high-end training cards in the west are expected to remain firm.

H100 Complete-Server Purchase Price Rises to 3 Million Yuan

SMM learned that on August 18, a channel shared an H100 server supply offer with market clients. Clients said that a few months ago the purchase price of complete H100 servers was still below 2 million yuan/unit, while current quotes had risen to 3 million yuan/unit. SMM previously learned that in early July, procurement information had appeared in the market for 16 units of spot brand-new ASUS H100 servers, with a three-year warranty and a quote of 2.74 million yuan/unit. As H100 is a key high-end computing power model, complete-server purchase prices remained in an upward channel amid spot scarcity.

5090: Complete-Server Purchase Price Rises 17% in Half a Month to 550,000 Yuan, Lease Release Formats Diverge

Procurement side, the complete-server purchase price of RTX 5090 eight-card servers climbed rapidly. The standard-configuration turbo-card model was quoted at around 550,000 yuan/unit, compared with 470,000 yuan/unit half a month ago, representing a rise of about 17% over half a month. In addition, a complete-server producer sold 5090 eight-card servers through an intermediary channel, with a selling price after intermediation of 445,000 yuan/unit. Market side, the SMM-5090-32G complete-server national short-term retail average price rose 15.44% MoM to 3.44 yuan/card/hour, and the monthly lease average price rose 13.04% to 2.6 yuan/card/hour. Supply side, lease-release formats diverged: a computing power cluster released 32 RTX 5090 eight-card servers with PCIE 4.0 specifications, monthly rent of 11,500 yuan/unit, and a minimum half-year lease term, entering the market with lower monthly rent and half-year lease terms, reflecting a volume-discount strategy for existing low-specification resources. A data center in south China released 20 PCIE 5.0 specification 5090 eight-card servers, with monthly rent of 13,000 yuan/unit, open-ended contracts, and first-hand data-center resources without intermediaries; suppliers tended to retain price-adjustment flexibility during the period of rising complete-server prices. Yesterday, another 32 PCIE 5.0 specification 5090 servers in south China were released for monthly open-ended leasing at 13,200 yuan/unit. Futures side, 128 5090 futures from an operator in east China have arrived successively. After being tracked since the end of June, contract performance has been normal, with more than 40 units delivered. The expected lease price for 3-year contracts is 13,000 yuan/unit/month, and the lessor is also exploring a 5-year long-term agreement model.

4090: 30 First-Hand Units Released for Lease in Shenzhen at 7,500 Yuan

SMM learned that a supplier in south China released 30 RTX 4090 (24G) server leasing resources, with monthly rent of 7,500 yuan/unit/month and 1-year contracts. The first-hand resources were directly linked to data centers, with no intermediate links. Market side, the SMM-4090-24G single-card Yangtze River Delta short-term retail average price fell 3.51% to 1.65 yuan/card/hour. Previously, SMM observed that low prices for 4090 in the Pearl River Delta were revised downward, and workstation-level substitutes continued to divert enterprises' local inference demand.

SMM Analysis:The main theme of today's market was that rising long-term agreement pricing and model differentiation proceeded in parallel. H100 side, the closed-end long-term agreement transactions for 64 units in Ulanqab directly lifted western spot pricing. Training demand continued to concentrate in high-end computing power in the west, and complete-server purchase prices also rose to 3 million yuan/unit, confirming that H100 supply and demand remain tight. 5090 side, complete-server purchase prices surged 17% in half a month to 550,000 yuan/unit, and the SMM index retail average price also rose 15%. Lease-release formats diverged—low-specification PCIE 4.0 used a low price of 11,500 yuan to gain volume, while high-specification PCIE 5.0 insisted on open-ended contracts to retain flexibility, reflecting differing supplier views on price increases. The stable performance of 128 futures units and the exploration of 5-year long-term agreements showed that suppliers were driving computing power leasing toward long-cycle lock-in. 4090 side, the release of 30 first-hand resources in Shenzhen at 7,500 yuan, coupled with downward revisions of low prices in the Pearl River Delta, continued the logic of workstation-level substitutes suppressing prices of existing cards.