Forum Markets Eyes AI Compute Growth as Aircraft Engines Drive Cash Flow

Aircraft engines are Forum Markets’ primary current investment focus: The company owns seven CFM56 engines, with five already contracted and generating rental revenue, and expects potential net returns in the mid-teens.

AI compute could become the company’s largest growth driver. Forum is pursuing a partnership involving facilities with available power, permits and cooling, but financial terms have not been finalized; the project could contribute materially to fourth-quarter 2026 revenue.

Forum reiterated its goal of exiting 2026 with $100 million to $175 million in assets under management and $18 million to $22 million in revenue, while targeting cash-flow positivity in early 2027.

Forum Markets outlined its strategy to build a portfolio of cash-flowing real-world assets while retaining the option to fractionalize or tokenize those assets as digital-market infrastructure and regulation develop.

Speaking at the Sidoti conference, John Kristoff, senior vice president of corporate communications and investor relations, said the company is targeting asset classes with high risk-adjusted returns, durable demand, scalable markets and high-quality counterparties. Forum’s current focus includes aircraft engines, AI infrastructure, modular-home financing and auto credit.

Kristoff said the company’s near-term model is centered on acquiring assets, generating cash flow, distributing returns where appropriate and reinvesting to expand its asset base. Tokenization is intended as a secondary opportunity rather than the immediate core of the business, he said.

Chief Financial Officer John Saunders said aircraft engines represent Forum’s largest current area of capital deployment. The company is focused on CFM56-7B and 5B engines used in narrow-body commercial aircraft. Forum has acquired five engines, all of which are contracted and generating rental revenue, Saunders said. The company acquired two additional engines after quarter-end and disclosed the purchases in an 8-K filing.

According to Saunders, Forum inspects engines before acquisition, reviews FAA maintenance records and contracts primarily with Delta Air Lines, United Airlines or American Airlines. The engines operate principally on domestic U.S. routes, with some Caribbean routes, he said. The company also negotiates guaranteed residual purchase prices at the end of its contracts and insures the engines throughout the holding period.

Saunders said the company expects tokenized engine investments, after management fees and including debt and depreciation considerations, to generate net returns in the mid-teens. He also cited potential tax benefits from bonus depreciation that could be distributed to investors through a K-1 structure.

In response to a question about why airlines, rather than aircraft manufacturers, are the customers, Saunders said major airlines lease engines and airframes rather than deploy substantial capital to own all of them. Airlines use separate engine pools to keep aircraft operating while engines undergo maintenance or overhaul, he said.

Forum expects AI infrastructure to become its second-largest vertical or potentially its largest over time. Saunders said the company has been evaluating bridge financing for GPU acquisitions as well as AI compute opportunities, and is working toward announcing a compute partnership in the coming weeks or months. He said the planned transaction would be a compute deal rather than a bridge-financing arrangement. Forum is focusing on facilities with immediately available power, permits and ...