S&P Global Inc. (SPGI) Business Profile

What it does

S&P Global is headquartered in New York City and provides benchmarks, data, analytics and workflow tools for capital, energy, commodity and automotive markets. [record] Its main businesses are Market Intelligence, Ratings, Energy, Mobility and S&P Dow Jones Indices; Mobility was spun off and is treated as discontinued operations. [item1] [call_prepared]

Market Intelligence supplies financial, company, market and private-capital-market data, research and software used in investment and corporate workflows. Its Capital IQ platforms provide desktop, mobile, office, feed and API access to information and analytics. Enterprise Solutions supplies software for managing and analyzing data, risk, positions and regulatory requirements. [item1]

Ratings produces credit ratings, research and analytics. A credit rating is its opinion on an issuer’s ability and willingness to meet financial obligations; investors can use that opinion when assessing bonds and other fixed-income investments. [item1] Energy supplies price assessments, benchmarks, data, news, analytics, software and services for energy and commodity markets. Indices maintains market indexes used by investment advisers, wealth managers and institutional investors as benchmarks and as the basis for investment products and derivatives. [item1]

The company’s customers include investors, issuers, banks, insurers, exchanges, traders, commodity producers and consumers, manufacturers and public agencies. Its products reach customers through proprietary and third-party distribution channels. [item1]

How it makes money

S&P Global earns recurring and transaction-based revenue across its businesses. Market Intelligence primarily sells subscriptions for data, valuation services, analytics, third-party research, ratings-related information, software and hosted products. It also earns variable recurring fees based on measures such as trades processed, assets under management or positions valued, plus non-subscription revenue from advisory work, pricing conferences, events and analytical services. [item1]

Ratings receives transaction fees when issuers bring corporate, government or structured-finance debt to market and for bank-loan ratings. It also receives non-transaction revenue for surveillance of existing ratings, annual relationship-pricing programs, entity ratings, research and analytics. [item1] Energy primarily sells subscriptions to market data, price assessments, reports, commentary, analytics and software licences; it also receives royalties when exchanges license proprietary price data, plus consulting, event and perpetual-software revenue. [item1]

Indices earns asset-linked fees when money is invested in products based on its indexes, volume-linked royalties from listed derivative contracts, licensing fees for over-the-counter derivatives and structured products, and subscriptions for index data and customized indexes. [item1]

For FY2025, revenue increased 8%; in Q3 2026, revenue grew 7% on both an organic constant-currency and all-in basis. [item7] [call_prepared] In Q3 2026, Indices recorded its 14th consecutive quarter of record revenue, while Market Intelligence revenue grew 7%, Ratings revenue grew 2%, and Energy revenue grew 6%. [call_prepared]

Customers and how it sells

Market Intelligence serves investment managers, investment banks, private-equity firms, insurers, commercial banks, corporations, professional-services firms, government agencies and regulators. [item1] Ratings serves investors, corporations, governments, municipalities, banks, insurers, asset managers and other debt issuers. [item1] Energy serves producers, consumers, traders and intermediaries across energy, chemicals, shipping, metals, carbon and agriculture; Indices serves investment advisers, wealth managers and institutional investors. [item1]

Customers can receive Market Intelligence content through desktop products, web and feed-based channels, APIs, software and hosted products. [item1] The company also distributes products through proprietary and third-party channels. [item1]

The Capital IQ and associated-data businesses under strategic review serve more than 15,000 clients and more than 355,000 users. [call_prepared] These businesses include Capital IQ and associated data businesses within Market Intelligence, while the expected retained businesses include RatingsDirect, RatingsXpress and Enterprise Solutions; the final perimeter remains under review. [call_prepared]

Suppliers and costs

S&P Global’s operations are based on information, analytics, software, benchmarks and workflow products rather than physical manufacturing. Its reported operating costs include compensation, technology spending, acquired-intangible amortization, strategic-investment costs, severance, legal costs and disposition-related costs. [item7]

In Q3 2026, adjusted expenses grew 5% as the company invested in growth areas and held total headcount flat year over year. [call_prepared] Market Intelligence’s adjusted expenses increased 5%, reflecting costs from the With Intelligence acquisition and higher technology costs, partly offset by divestitures and productivity programs. [call_prepared] Energy’s adjusted expenses grew 2%, with higher technology and compensation costs nearly offset by productivity programs and expense discipline. [call_prepared]

The company had 44,500 permanent employees worldwide at December 31, 2025. [item1] It targets $100.0 million of annualized Enterprise Data Office cost savings before the end of 2027, described as roughly 20% of that cost base. [facts]

Competitive position

No competitor is identified as such in the available company information, so no named competitor is listed below. The company does identify competition with local rating agencies that may have greater familiarity, longer operating histories or support from local governments or institutions. [item1a]

The company states that its benchmarks, data and solutions are used in credit, equity and commodity markets, and that its index business receives asset-linked fees and derivative royalties when third parties use its indexes. [item1] Its Ratings business has offices in more than 25 countries and supplies ratings, research and analytics to capital-market participants. [item1]

Our reading: The use of indexes in funds, derivatives and licensing arrangements is a meaningful moat because customers and market participants can build products and settlement processes around a common benchmark. [item1]

Our reading: Ratings has a meaningful moat from its role in issuer and investor debt-market workflows, but local agencies and government-supported institutions can be competitive in particular jurisdictions. [item1] [item1a]

Our reading: Market Intelligence and Energy have a more moderate moat because their data, software and workflow tools are embedded in customer processes, while customers can also source information and technology elsewhere. [item1]

Growth opportunities

S&P Global’s stated strategy is to expand market leadership, pursue adjacent markets and integrate AI across its capabilities. Its identified adjacencies include private markets, energy expansion, supply-chain intelligence, wealth, decentralized finance, blockchain and quantum computing. [item7]

The company reported about $600.0 million of private-markets revenue across the organization in 2025. [facts] It expects approximately $11.00 trillion of rated debt to require refinancing over the next 4.5 years. [facts] In Q3 2026, the company said it expected $250 billion to $300 billion of hyperscaler debt issuance for the full year and forecast nearly $900.0 billion of capital expenditure by the six largest hyperscalers. [call_prepared]

AI-ready data is another development area. The company combined MCP tools and adaptive retrieval agents into an AI data portal, and launched Ratings, Energy and Visible Alpha data in MCP. [call_prepared] It reported more than 500 customers using LLM-ready APIs and MCP-connected solutions in Q2 2026. [facts] The company said discrete AI products contributed about 50 basis points to Q3 revenue growth in Energy and Kensho Data and Platforms. [call_prepared]

For 2026, the company raised its organic constant-currency growth outlook to 7.5% to 8.5%. It expects 6.5% to 8% growth in Ratings, 17% to 18.5% in Indices, and 5.5% to 7% in Market Intelligence. [call_prepared]

Structural risks

• Cybersecurity and operational continuity: The company’s size, scale and role in global markets increase exposure to cyber attacks. Internal system or human errors have caused outages and disruptions, and future incidents could materially affect the business, financial condition or results. [item1a]

• Market activity and volatility: Changes in securities issuance and trading, asset levels and flows into investment products, interest rates, financial-market volatility and energy-and-commodity-market volatility can affect results. [item1a]

• Regulation, litigation and data obligations: Litigation, government and regulatory proceedings, investigations and inquiries could materially affect the business. The company is also subject to laws governing personal and sensitive information across the jurisdictions where it operates. [item1a]

• International operations: Geographic breadth creates legal, economic, operational, market, compliance and reputational exposure, including trade restrictions, cross-border-data-transfer restrictions, data localization, foreign-ownership limits, currency constraints, tax changes and local competition. [item1a]

• Portfolio actions and integration: Acquisitions and divestitures can create integration expense, systems-consolidation difficulties, employee-retention issues, unintended liabilities, transition-service obligations, dis-synergies and management distraction. [item1a]

• AI and customer economics: The company says customers are seeking to manage token expenses and may build AI solutions in-house. It was also reported on 27 October 2026 that AI could disrupt its data and analytics franchises. [facts]

Bottom line

Our reading

Our reading: S&P Global is an information-infrastructure business built around recurring data, benchmark, analytics and workflow revenue, alongside transaction-sensitive ratings and index licensing revenue. [item1] [call_prepared]

Our reading: Its results retain exposure to debt issuance, asset values, derivatives volumes and commodity-market conditions, while the Mobility separation and Capital IQ strategic review change the portfolio and add execution requirements. [item1a] [call_prepared]

Our reading: AI data products, private markets, refinancing needs and data-center investment are identified growth avenues, but customer AI spending and competitive alternatives remain relevant constraints. [facts] [call_prepared]