The CTI AI-Factory Equity Index in plain words

The CTI AI-Factory Equity Index is a rules-based, transparent measure of the listed companies that build and run AI factories. Where the Compute Cost and Capacity indices measure prices and power, this one measures the equity of the companies behind them, from the chips to the buildings and the power that feeds them. It has been published since 11 November 2026. Every value before that date is a hypothetical back-test, and every place that shows one says so.

This piece explains the rules in plain words. The live index is on the Equity Index page, and the rules themselves, in full, are in the methodology.

Seven segments

The index groups its companies into seven segments, so that the build-out is covered from end to end:

• 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 one covers US listings, including American depositary receipts.

Who gets in: the universe

The candidates are chosen from company filings, not from opinion. Each name in the universe has a segment, an exposure class, the filing behind that class, and a status: included, borderline or excluded. Only included names are candidates, and borderline names are tested again at each reconstitution. Every version of the list is dated, so the universe on any past date can be reconstructed.

The exposure class says how much of a company's business is AI infrastructure. A company is a pure play when AI-infrastructure revenue is at least half of its total, and significant, held at half weight, when it is a smaller share above the floor the methodology sets. The evidence is read in a fixed order: first the share stated in the latest annual report on Form 10-K or 20-F; otherwise a share stated in the company's own earnings releases filed on Form 8-K; otherwise, in the power, equipment and construction segments only, a sentence in the annual report naming a current datacentre business, which enters the name as significant and labelled qualitative until the company discloses a figure. Bitcoin mining, trading, orders, backlog and contracted revenue do not count as AI-infrastructure revenue.

Who stays in: eligibility

At each reconstitution, in June and December, an included candidate must pass a set of screens on the selection date: it has traded recently and has not been delisted; a new entrant has traded for a minimum period; its free-float market capitalisation and its average daily traded value are above the methodology's minimums, with lower buffers for existing constituents so that a name near the line does not move in and out; and a share count had been filed by that date.

Two events can change the list between reconstitutions. A newly listed company that is large enough on its tenth trading session can enter early, by fast entry, with notice. A constituent that is delisted leaves after its last close, its weight goes to the others in proportion, and at the next quarterly reweight it is replaced by the largest eligible name in its segment.

How each company is weighted

A company's starting value is its share price, times its shares, times its free-float factor, times its exposure factor: full weight for a pure play, half for a significant one. Those values are turned into weights and then capped, all at once, so that:

• no single company carries more than a fixed maximum weight;
• no company is raised too far above its starting weight by the capping;
• the companies above a set threshold together stay within a combined limit, in line with the diversification rules that European funds follow;
• each segment with constituents stays between a floor and a ceiling.

The capping is solved exactly, at the level of segments and of the names within them. If no set of weights can meet every limit, the decision goes to the index committee. The limits themselves are published in the methodology.

How the level is calculated

The index uses the divisor method common to most equity indices. The level is the market value of the constituents, at their index shares and closing prices, divided by a divisor. When something happens that should not change the level, such as a stock split, a special dividend, a spin-off, a delisting or a rebalance, the divisor is adjusted so that the level carries on unchanged.

Several versions are published from the same rules. The headline is the capped version as a price return. A net total return version reinvests dividends after withholding tax. An equal-weight version gives every constituent the same value at each rebalance, without the segment limits. Seven segment sub-indices follow each segment on its own.

The calendar

Rebalances take effect after the close on the third Friday of March, June, September and December, or on the session before when that Friday is a holiday. The selection is made ten sessions before, and the changes are announced five sessions before they take effect. June and December are full reconstitutions. March and September reweight the existing constituents with fresh share counts and float, and fill any vacancies left by deletions.

The base date and the back-test

The index starts from a fixed base value on 30 December 2022. Every value from then until 11 November 2026 is a hypothetical back-test: the level the rules would have produced had the index existed. The back-test is point-in-time in listing dates, share counts and float, but its universe is today's, so companies that would have qualified earlier and have since been delisted or acquired are missing, and exposure classes are today's. The index did not exist then. Past performance, real or simulated, says nothing reliable about the future.

The daily process

Every version of the index is recalculated from the base date on each run, so the same inputs always give the same levels. The calculation runs each evening after the vendors' correction window, and again the next morning, which restates a value if a close was corrected. A value is flagged, and not published until it is approved, when a constituent's close had to be carried forward or when the day's move is unusually large.

Governance

Discretionary decisions, such as a capping that cannot be solved, a disputed corporate action or a change to the universe, go to the index committee. Its members are Denis Rudev, its chair, and Gleb Petukhov. Every decision needs both of them. The committee's terms of reference are published on the independence page.

Three further rules protect the record. A live value that changes on a recalculation is logged with the old value, the new value and the reason. Methodology changes are announced with notice before they take effect, except in an emergency, which must be marked with its reason. And where a constituent is named in an advisory mandate, it is written to the conflicts register and to the committee's recusal record, and the constituent table carries the disclosure.

What each plan sees

The headline level and its thirty-day chart are free, and so are the ten largest constituents and their weights. The full constituent list is in Standard and above. The headline's history, the net total return, the equal-weight version and the seven segment sub-indices are in Plus, and the constituent file is in Pro. The factsheet comes with any account.

The index measures a sector; it says nothing about whether any company in it is good value, and nothing on these pages is a recommendation. Not investment advice.

Sources

• CTI AI-Factory Equity Index methodology, version 1.0 (signed off 3 November 2026); methodology.
• Index committee terms of reference; independence.
• SEC EDGAR filings (10-K, 10-Q, 20-F, 8-K and 6-K) for shares, float and exposure.
• Price data: Intrinio.