Securities Regulation Daily Wrap Up, AI NEWS—Petitioner calls for SEC rules on public company AI compute, (Jul 8, 2026)
The proposed disclosure would focus on issues surrounding obsolescence and how AI infrastructure is accounted for in financial statements.
A rulemaking petition filed by Raymond Gillis asks the SEC to consider adopting rules mandating disclosures about material artificial intelligence (AI) compute data, albeit without requiring companies to divulge proprietary information. The central theme of the petition is that investors need the data to better judge whether companies that use AI significantly are properly accounting for the potential rapid obsolescence of their AI infrastructure, including “AI servers, accelerators, [and] data centers.”
“Existing financial statements recognize property and equipment, capital expenditures, depreciation expense, and segment results,” said Gillis. “Yet investors generally cannot determine the age, technological composition, remaining carrying value, utilization, or economic productivity of material AI compute assets.”
The data called for by the petition generally would not involve GAAP disclosures per se but some of the requested disclosures, as in the case of economic yield, are proposed to be reconciled to “reported GAAP segment information.” Specifically, the petition calls for “standardized supplemental disclosure” regarding multiple categories of data, including:
Asset aging by in-service vintage;
Material accelerator or server classes stated at a non-proprietary level;
Gross and net carrying amounts;
Estimated and remaining useful lives;
Depreciation sensitivity;
Utilization;
Retirements, accelerated depreciation, and impairments; and
Reasonably measurable AI compute operating contribution and economic yield.
The first category, for example, could be useful in helping investors assess the aging and carrying value of these assets, said the petition. The petition also called for data regarding economic yield by asset that would mandate disclosures about pre-tax economic yield by vintage. With respect to this proposed metric, the petition expressed a preference for data based on “average net carrying amount over the reporting period, rather than a point-in-time ending balance.”
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