Compute Terminal Index
CTI AI-Factory Equity Index: methodology
Version 1.0, effective 11 Nov 2026.
1. Objective
A rules-based, transparent measure of the listed companies that build and run AI factories, in seven segments: compute silicon and memory; networking, optics, interconnect and servers; neoclouds and AI clouds; datacentre real estate and developers; power generation and grid; electrical, thermal and cooling equipment; engineering, construction and EPC. Version 1 covers US listings, ADRs included.
2. Universe
The candidates are chosen from company filings. Each name has a segment, an exposure class, the filing behind that class, and a status: included, borderline or excluded. Only included names are candidates. Borderline names are tested again at each reconstitution. Each version of the list is dated, so the universe on any past date can be reconstructed.
A name is pure play when AI-infrastructure revenue is 50% or more of the total, and significant, held at half weight, when it is 20–50%. The evidence, in this order:
- The AI-infrastructure revenue share stated in the latest 10-K or 20-F: a data-centre segment or end market, an HPC platform, AI or HPC cloud and colocation revenue. Bitcoin mining, hosting of miners, trading, orders, backlog and contracted revenue do not count.
- Otherwise, a share stated in the company's own 8-K exhibits (earnings releases).
- Otherwise, in the power, equipment and construction segments only, a 10-K sentence naming a current data-centre business: the name enters as significant, labelled qualitative, until it discloses a figure. Every other segment uses the stated share only.
Names below 20% are excluded, with the reason. Names without a qualifying figure outside those three segments, or whose data-centre business is so far only orders or future contracts, are borderline.
The exposure class comes from the latest annual figures: the annual report or, where it states no figure, the company's own releases covering that fiscal year. A higher share in later quarters does not change the class until an annual report shows it.
A security is listed from its first day of regular-way trading on a US exchange. OTC quotation and when-issued trading do not count.
3. Data
| Input | Source |
|---|---|
| End-of-day unadjusted close, volume, cash dividend on its ex-date, split factor | Price data: Intrinio. |
| Shares outstanding and public float | SEC EDGAR filings (cover-page data) |
| Float factors for foreign filers, and share counts between annual reports | The company's own filings, each entered with its source |
| Special dividends, spin-offs, delistings | The company's own filings, each entered with its source |
Recent bars are read again on every run, so a corrected close replaces the stored one. A constituent with no print on a day is carried at its last close, and the value is flagged.
A spin-off's value per share is set from licensed prices. Where the price source also reports a spin-off as a dividend on the ex-date, the entered spin-off is that distribution, and the figure is not reinvested as cash as well.
On a selection date the calculation uses the latest share count whose filing date is on or before it, adjusted for splits since the count's own date and divided by the ADR ratio. The free-float factor is, in order: a float factor filed by then; otherwise the 10-K public float divided by the market cap on its measurement date; otherwise 1.0. Factors are rounded to 0.01 and kept within 0.01 and 1.
A 20-F has no public-float figure. Where its cover shows share classes that are not listed, the factor is the listed classes' shares over all shares, both from that cover, point in time. A class is listed when a Section 12(b) title names it, directly or as the class an ADS represents. Between two 20-Fs, a restructuring is entered from the company's 6-Ks by the same rule. This covers Nebius, GDS and VNET. TSMC has one class, so it stays at full float.
4. Eligibility
At each reconstitution, in June and December, and on the base date, a candidate is eligible on the selection date when it is in the universe with status included and:
- it has traded on one of the last five sessions and has not been delisted;
- it has traded for three calendar months (new entrants only; a constituent that entered by fast entry stays);
- its free-float market cap (close × shares × float factor) is at least $1bn, or $0.75bn for an existing constituent;
- its three-month average daily traded value (close × volume over the last 63 sessions) is at least $10m, or $7.5m for an existing constituent;
- a share count was filed by the selection date.
Fast entry: a universe name whose tenth trading session falls between rebalances, with a free-float market cap of $5bn or more on that day, is selected that day, announced the next session and added after the close five sessions later, or at the next scheduled rebalance if that comes first. The whole basket is re-capped at that close.
Deletion: a delisted constituent leaves after the close of its last trading day at that close, and its weight goes to the others in proportion. At the next quarterly reweight it is replaced by the largest eligible non-constituent in its segment by free-float market cap, if there is one. At a reconstitution the full screens apply.
5. Weighting and capping
The target value of a name is close × shares × float factor × exposure factor (1.0 for pure play, 0.5 for significant), all as of the selection date except the close, which is the effective date's. Targets are normalised to weights and capped so that, at once:
- no name is above 8%;
- no name is above 12 times its target weight;
- names above 4.5% are together at most 40% (UCITS 5/10/40 compatible);
- each segment that has constituents is between 7.5% and 30%, except that the floor gives way where the ceilings stop a segment's names from reaching it, and the rest then goes to the other segments in proportion.
The capping is iterative and solved exactly at two levels, segment totals and names within a segment. If the names above 4.5% sum to more than 40%, the one with the smallest market cap among them is restricted to 4.5% and the solve repeats, so that bucket goes to the largest companies. A name is never restricted where that would leave its segment below its floor or the caps short of 100%. If no name can be restricted, the rebalance goes to the committee.
If no weights meet the limits under the ceiling, the ceiling rises one multiple at a time to the lowest that works, and the rebalance records the ceiling it used. Weights that already satisfy every limit come back unchanged.
6. Calculation
Laspeyres divisor method. For each index, the level is the sum of index shares × unadjusted close over its members, divided by the divisor. In the capped version, index shares are shares × float factor × exposure factor × capping factor. In the equal-weight version, members have equal values at each rebalance close. Price return and net total return of a version share index shares and keep separate divisors. The seven segment sub-indices use the capped version's index shares.
Divisor adjustments keep the level unchanged through every event. MV is the members' market value at the previous close, and at the effective close for rebalances:
| Event (timing) | Index shares | Price return divisor | Net total return divisor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Split, factor f (at the start of the ex-date) | × f | unchanged | unchanged |
| Regular cash dividend d (at the start of the ex-date) | unchanged | unchanged | × (MV − Σ q·d·(1 − w)) / MV |
| Special dividend s (at the start of the ex-date) | unchanged | × (MV − Σ q·s) / MV | × (MV − Σ q·s·(1 − w)) / MV |
| Spin-off, value v per share (at the start of the ex-date) | unchanged | × (MV − Σ q·v) / MV | × (MV − Σ q·v) / MV |
| Delisting (after the close of the last day) | removed | × (MV − q·P) / MV | the same |
| Rebalance (after the close of the effective date) | new q | × MV new / MV old | the same |
q is index shares, P the close, and w the withholding: 30% for non-US issuers and 0 for US issuers. A licensed cash dividend is regular unless a special dividend is entered for the same ticker and date, in which case the entered amount is special and any remainder regular.
7. Calendar
Rebalances take effect after the close on the third Friday of March, June, September and December, or the previous session when that Friday is an NYSE holiday. Selection is ten sessions and announcement five sessions before. June and December are full reconstitutions. March and September reweight the existing constituents with fresh share counts and float, and fill any deletions.
8. Base date, back-test and launch
Base 30 Dec 2022 = 1,000 for every index. A segment index with no constituents on the base date starts at 1,000 on its first date. The base composition is selected ten sessions before.
Every value before 11 Nov 2026 is a hypothetical back-test, and every place that shows one says so. The back-test is point-in-time in listing dates, share counts and float, but its universe is today's: companies that would have qualified earlier and have since been delisted or acquired are absent, and exposure classes are today's. The index did not exist then, and past performance, real or simulated, says nothing reliable about the future.
9. Daily process
Every index is recalculated from the base date on each run, so the same inputs always give the same levels. The calculation runs at 20:30 ET on NYSE sessions, after the vendors' correction window, and again at 06:30 ET the next morning, which restates a value if a close was corrected.
A value is flagged when a constituent has no print and its close is carried forward, or when the daily move is beyond ±10%. A flagged value is not published until it is approved.
10. Governance
- Restatements: a stored live value that changes at 4 decimals on a recalculation is logged with the old and new value and the reason. Back-test changes are summarised in one record per index.
- Methodology changes are recorded with at least 30 days' notice, unless a change is marked an emergency with a reason.
- Conflicts: at each live rebalance, constituents named in an active or cooling-off advisory mandate are written to the conflicts register and the committee's recusal record, and the constituents table carries the mandate disclosure line.
- Committee: discretionary decisions (an infeasible capping, a disputed corporate action, a universe change) go to the index committee named on the independence page.
11. Series and access
| Series | Who sees the history |
|---|---|
| Headline, price return | Level and 30-day chart free; history Plus |
| Net total return | Plus |
| Equal weight (same constituents, no segment limits), price and net total return | Plus |
| Seven segment sub-indices, price return | Plus |
The ten largest constituents and their weights are free. The full constituent list is in Standard and above. The constituent file and the API are in Pro. The factsheet is available with any account.
Disclosures
Impersonal, general research for professional market participants, including professional and sophisticated investors where receipt of such research is lawful. Not investment, procurement, engineering, legal or tax advice, and not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Intended for professional and sophisticated investors where receipt of such research is lawful.
See the index page, independence and conflicts and corrections. Not investment advice.