High-frequency trading firms such as Jane Street are investing in AI and chip startups and neoclouds, and building data centers to gain an edge in the AI era (Bloomberg)

For years, high-frequency traders like Jane Street and Hudson River Trading have fought over every nanosecond in a battle to be fastest. But the contest between Wall Street's market-making giants has now morphed into something that goes beyond pure speed. These days they're also racing for compute, the raw processing power at the heart of the artificial intelligence revolution.