Silicon Data, an independent data and transparency layer for the compute economy, and Syntax Data, an institutional index provider and financial data and technology company, announced that Syntax has been appointed index calculation agent for Silicon Data’s benchmark index family covering GPU and AI infrastructure markets.

The appointment brings independent, third-party calculation to a set of benchmarks that increasingly serve as reference rates for a new asset class. Compute – the processing power required to train and run AI models – has historically traded through bilateral, opaque, and highly fragmented arrangements, with pricing that varies materially across providers, regions, hardware generations, and contract structures. Silicon Data’s rental indices, benchmarks, and forward curve have become the reference points that allow that exposure to be measured, priced, and, increasingly, hedged.

As the market moves from price discovery toward risk transfer, the standards applied to the underlying benchmarks rise accordingly. Under the arrangement, Syntax will perform daily index calculations operating under documented methodologies, independent controls, and audit and oversight processes consistent with institutional benchmark practice.

The structure deliberately separates the index sponsor and methodology owner from the calculation agent – a governance model long established in equity, fixed income, and commodity benchmarks, and one that regulators and institutional users have consistently identified as central to benchmark integrity. For buyers and sellers of compute risk, that separation matters: the reference rate embedded in a hedge should be produced independently of any party with an economic interest in where it settles.

“Compute is becoming a market in the full sense of the word – with price discovery, a forward curve, and a growing set of participants who need to manage exposure rather than simply absorb it,” said Carmen Li, Chief Executive Officer of Silicon Data. “Getting the data right was the first challenge. Getting the governance right is what allows that data to carry institutional weight. Working with Syntax as our index calculation agent gives the market an independent, auditable process behind our benchmarks – which is exactly what participants should expect from any index they are prepared to trade against.”

“Every asset class that matures into a hedgeable market does so on the back of a trusted benchmark,” said Bruce Traan, President and Chief Operating Officer, Indices, at Syntax Data. “Compute is now at that inflection point, presenting one of the most compelling frontier problems in indexing today. Our role is to bring the same rigor, controls, and independence we apply across our institutional index business to a market being built in real time. Silicon Data has done the hard work of making compute measurable; Syntax is focused on making the resulting benchmarks calculable, repeatable, and defensible.”

The collaboration is intended to support the continued expansion of compute-linked products, including listed derivatives, structured solutions, and index-linked instruments referencing compute pricing. Both firms expect the benchmark family to broaden as new hardware generations, contract tenors, and adjacent inputs – including inference and token-level pricing – become established components of the AI infrastructure cost stack.

Additional details on the index family, methodology documentation, and governance framework are available on request.