MSCI Inc (MSCI) Business Profile

What it does

MSCI, founded in 1969 and headquartered in New York City, provides research-based data, indexes and analytics for investors. Henry A. Fernandez is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Its tools help clients choose investment universes, allocate assets, construct portfolios, measure risk and performance, incorporate sustainability and climate considerations, and prepare regulatory or client reports. An index is a defined set of rules for measuring a market or investment strategy. Clients can use MSCI indexes as benchmarks, or as the basis for exchange-traded funds, mutual funds, derivatives and other index-linked products.

The company has four main product areas. Index covers equity, fixed-income, sustainability, climate, thematic, private-asset and custom indexes. Analytics supplies risk models, portfolio-construction tools, stress testing, performance attribution and reporting. Sustainability and Climate provides ratings, screening, climate data, regulatory tools and location-based risk analysis. Private-assets offerings provide transaction, fund, company and asset data, benchmarks, portfolio analytics and reporting for private equity, credit, real estate and infrastructure.

MSCI delivers its content through applications, APIs, data feeds, cloud tools, third-party applications and client platforms. Its products are used across public and private markets and can combine content from several of its businesses in one workflow.

How it makes money

MSCI primarily licenses annual, recurring subscriptions, generally charging in advance of the service period. These subscriptions cover data, research, indexes, applications and services, and revenue is generally recognized over the licence or service term. Recurring subscriptions revenue was $2.3 billion in FY2025, representing 72.7% of revenue.

It also earns asset-based fees when clients use its indexes for index-linked products. These variable fees are mainly tied to assets under management, trading volumes and fee levels; they therefore move with markets, investor flows and client activity. Asset-based fees were $770.7 million in FY2025, or 24.6% of revenue. Non-recurring revenue, such as one-time licences, implementation work, historical datasets and certain derivative-product fees, was $85.1 million.

The Index segment produced $1.8 billion in FY2025, or 57.0% of revenue. Analytics produced $714.4 million, Sustainability and Climate produced $353.9 million, and All Other – Private Assets produced $279.3 million. Index revenue includes recurring subscriptions and asset-based fees; 43.1% of Index revenue came from asset-based fees in FY2025.

FY2025 revenue mix: $2.3 billion of recurring subscriptions, $770.7 million of asset-based fees and $85.1 million of non-recurring revenue; in Q3 2026, total revenue grew 12.4%, asset-based-fee revenue grew 25%, and subscription revenue grew 8%.

There were nearly $23 trillion of assets benchmarked to MSCI indexes, including roughly $8 trillion indexed and roughly $15 trillion actively managed.

Customers and how it sells

MSCI serves asset managers, banks and brokerages, asset owners, hedge funds, wealth managers, insurers, exchanges, vendors, real-estate professionals, academic institutions and corporates. It served approximately 6,800 client organizations in more than 100 countries at December 31, 2025.

Clients can receive content directly from MSCI or through third-party vendors, APIs, data feeds, cloud delivery, proprietary applications and their own platforms. Index data can also be accessed through third-party vendors worldwide. MSCI is expanding into use cases for wealth managers, banks as lenders, general partners and insurers, while continuing to serve asset managers, asset owners, traders and hedge funds.

BlackRock was the largest client organization in FY2025 and represented 10.8% of revenue. Of operating revenue from BlackRock, 96.5% came from fees based on assets in BlackRock ETFs and non-ETF products using MSCI indexes.

The United States generated $1.3 billion, or 40.4%, of FY2025 revenue. The United Kingdom generated $543.5 million, or 17.3%, and Japan generated $127.6 million, or 4.07%.

Suppliers and costs

MSCI relies on third-party data, applications and services to create and deliver products. Equity-index construction requires certain stock-exchange data, and the company also relies on vendors and service providers to distribute products and process data. It licenses third-party intellectual property for parts of its offerings.

Its cost base includes technology, cloud, platform and infrastructure costs; acquiring, producing and maintaining market data; research; product management; client service; sales and marketing; research and development; and general and administrative functions. It employed 6,268 people at December 31, 2025.

Acquisitions are expected to add roughly $20 million of expense in 2026. MSCI also expects $15.0 million to $20.0 million of incremental non-cash performance-stock-option expense and $10.0 million to $15.0 million of additional severance expense as it accelerates AI-related organizational efficiencies.

Competitive position

MSCI competes in index provision with S&P Dow Jones Indices, FTSE Russell, Nasdaq, Bloomberg and Solactive. It also competes with asset managers and investment banks that create proprietary indexes, including for self-indexed funds and structured products.

In Analytics, it competes with Axioma, BlackRock Solutions, Bloomberg and FactSet, as well as broker-dealers, custodians and investment organizations that offer internally developed risk and performance tools. In Sustainability and Climate, named competitors include Sustainalytics, Institutional Shareholder Services, S&P Global, Refinitiv and Bloomberg. Private-assets products compete with providers of transaction-, fund- and asset-level data, market intelligence, indexes, and performance and risk-attribution tools.

MSCI has proprietary index, market, sustainability, climate, factor-model and private-asset datasets, plus risk algorithms and research. It distributes this content through APIs, data feeds and cloud delivery, and its tools can integrate content across product lines. It also holds trademarks, uses other proprietary rights and licences some third-party intellectual property.

Our reading: Proprietary content and the accumulated datasets are a meaningful moat because they underpin indexes, models and linked workflows, although competitors also supply comparable data, ratings, indexes and analytics.

Our reading: Asset-based index fees benefit from clients using benchmarks in investment products, but self-indexing and potential fee negotiation limit the strength of that moat.

Our reading: Distribution through client workflows, APIs and integrated applications supports retention, but clients can use third-party applications and internally developed tools.

Growth opportunities

MSCI is pursuing growth across research-enhanced content, private assets, sustainability and climate, client customization, distribution technology, strategic relationships, partnerships and acquisitions. It is expanding beyond asset managers toward hedge funds, wealth managers, banks and broker-dealers, asset owners, insurers, corporates and proprietary market makers.

The company is developing custom indexes and tools that allow clients to set risk, return, sustainability and investment preferences. It is also applying AI to data processing, content creation, analytics and product development. MSCI launched a custom model service, is building factor models and specialized datasets, and introduced new total-portfolio offerings for asset and wealth managers.

In Q3 2026, subscription run-rate growth was 11.7% in Index, 7.5% in Analytics and 19% in Private Capital Solutions. MSCI had $76 billion of equity-ETF cash inflows during the quarter and nearly $23 trillion of assets benchmarked to its indexes. Newer products increased their contribution to new sales by more than 50% from a year earlier in Q3, following a 40.0% increase in H1 2026.

MSCI expects recurring net new sales in the Sustainability and Climate reporting segment to be roughly flat to slightly positive in Q4 2026. It is integrating First Street, and demand for physical-risk solutions is growing.

Structural risks

• MSCI depends on third parties for data, applications, services and distribution. Loss, suspension, lower quality or licensing disputes involving key suppliers or distributors could impair product delivery.

• Asset-based fees can decline if clients negotiate lower fee structures, lower product expense ratios or stop using MSCI indexes. Market levels, assets under management, investment trends and trading volumes also affect these fees.

• The company’s platforms and operations depend on secure technology and data processing. Failures, disruptions, vulnerabilities, cyber-attacks, data-confidentiality failures and problems arising from new technology or AI could interrupt products, increase costs or cause legal and reputational harm.

• MSCI operates in competitive markets and must keep introducing and enhancing products, collect and protect large amounts of information, and generate client demand. Client budget pressure, cancellations and consolidation in asset management can affect retention and sales.

• Sustainability and climate demand faces regulatory uncertainty and political opposition in some markets. Elevated cancellations included a sizable client down-sale tied to reduced sustainability spending, and MSCI expects pressures on parts of that franchise through Q4 2026.

• Laws and regulations across jurisdictions can increase costs, restrict operations or create legal risk. Rules affecting benchmarks, ESG ratings, disclosures, data use and cross-border operations are relevant to the business.

Bottom line

Our reading

Our reading: MSCI is a data, analytics and index-licensing business whose revenue is led by recurring subscriptions, with a material variable-fee component linked to index-based investment products. Its products sit in portfolio construction, risk management, benchmarking and reporting workflows across public and private markets.

Our reading: The principal operating exposure is the combination of market-sensitive asset-based fees, dependence on third-party data and technology, and competitive or regulatory pressure. The company is adding AI-enabled, customized and private-assets offerings while continuing to face pressure in Sustainability and Climate.