S&P Global Inc. (SPGI): Business Model Canvas [Dec-2025 Updated]

You're trying to map out the engine room of S&P Global Inc., and honestly, it's simpler than you think: they sell essential trust and data infrastructure. This isn't just a financial data vendor; it's the gatekeeper for credit markets and the source for benchmarks like the S&P 500, which helps explain their solid 2025 forecast. They are projecting full-year TTM revenue of about $15.01 billion, driven by recurring subscriptions, and expect to generate between $5.6 billion and $5.8 billion in adjusted free cash flow. They own the data layer. So, let's break down the nine building blocks that keep this data-and-trust machine running so smoothly below.

S&P Global Inc. (SPGI) - Canvas Business Model: Key Partnerships

You're looking at the core relationships S&P Global Inc. relies on to deliver its essential intelligence. These aren't just vendor agreements; they are strategic data exchanges and platform integrations that lock in market position.

The structure of these partnerships is critical, especially as S&P Global Inc. optimizes its portfolio, evidenced by the recent divestiture of its joint venture stake.

OSTTRA Divestiture Impact

The joint venture with CME Group, OSTTRA, which provided post-trade solutions across rates, FX, credit, and equity, was sold to KKR. The terms of the deal established a total enterprise value of $3.1 billion. Since S&P Global Inc. held a 50/50 stake, the proceeds for S&P Global Inc. amounted to $1.55 billion, which was realized upon the transaction's completion in October 2025.

The key partnership data points are summarized below:

Strategic Alliance with Barclays

The multi-year agreement with Barclays, effective July 2025, centers on a bidirectional data flow. Barclays receives comprehensive access to S&P Global Inc.'s suite of products, data, and solutions via the S&P Capital IQ Pro platform. In return, Barclays contributes its proprietary data into S&P Global Inc.'s cross-asset pricing and valuation services. This data exchange specifically enhances accuracy and coverage across bonds, loans, credit, and derivative pricing across the liquidity spectrum.

Collaboration for Private Markets Data

S&P Global Inc. formalized a strategic collaboration with Cambridge Associates and Mercer to create unified private markets performance analytics. This initiative uses the iLEVEL portfolio monitoring platform as a data clearinghouse. The goal is to standardize data collection and reporting for General Partners (GPs) and Limited Partners (LPs). The aggregated, anonymized insights will cover performance at the fund, asset, and deal levels.

Technology Partners for AI and Cloud

A key technology partnership was established with Google Cloud in August 2025. This move makes S&P Global Commodity Insights' AI-Ready Data available directly within Google Cloud's BigQuery platform. The AI-Ready Data packages cover energy, metals, chemicals, and agriculture, specifically structured for machine learning applications. This allows customers to leverage Google Cloud's infrastructure for faster model development.

Licensing Agreements for Index Products

The S&P Dow Jones Indices division, a majority-owned joint venture, continues to rely heavily on licensing. For the third quarter of 2025, this segment generated $462 million in revenue. This revenue stream is segmented:

• Asset-Linked Fees increased by 14% year-over-year.
• Data & Custom Subscriptions grew by 10%.
• The segment maintained the highest adjusted operating margin in the company at 71.2%.

S&P Dow Jones Indices licenses indices to over 550 financial institutions globally for investment products like ETFs, futures, and structured products.

S&P Global Inc. (SPGI) - Canvas Business Model: Key Activities

Generating independent credit ratings and research involves serving issuers and investors globally across Corporates, Financial Institutions, Governments, Infrastructure & Utilities, Insurance, Structured Finance, and Public Finance sectors. In the Ratings segment, Q3 2025 revenue reached $1.24B. Regarding credit outlook, the U.S. trailing-12-month speculative-grade corporate default rate is expected to push down to 4% through September 2026. Risky-credit counts declined in North America, but refinancing pressure is building.

Maintaining and licensing proprietary benchmarks like the S&P 500 is a core activity. S&P Dow Jones Indices reported that $16 trillion of assets are benchmarked to the S&P 500. Of that total, $9 trillion is managed passively.

Collecting, cleaning, and distributing vast financial and commodity data is executed across several divisions. The overall TTM revenue for S&P Global was $15.01B as of the quarter ending September 30, 2025.

You can see the revenue breakdown for the major segments in Q3 2025 right here:

Developing and integrating advanced AI and workflow technology is key to advancing essential intelligence. The company is navigating the acceleration of artificial intelligence in the global landscape.

Executing strategic M&A includes the recent closing of the With Intelligence acquisition for $1.8 billion, which was completed on November 25, 2025. With Intelligence was expected to generate $130 million in revenue in 2025.

The company returned $1.5B to shareholders via dividends and share buybacks since July and expects to implement additional repurchases totaling $2.5B in Q4.

• Subscription products revenue increased 7% year-over-year in Q2 2025.
• S&P Dow Jones Indices revenue grew 15% in Q2 2025.
• S&P Global reported Q3 2025 total revenue of $3.89B.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

S&P Global Inc. (SPGI) - Canvas Business Model: Key Resources

You're building a financial model for S&P Global Inc. (SPGI) and need to nail down the core assets driving its revenue. Honestly, the key resources here aren't just people or servers; they are the deeply embedded, trusted data and the regulatory moat that comes with being a primary source for global finance.

The financial projections for 2025 show a commitment to strong cash generation, even with revised expectations. S&P Global Inc. has a revised guidance of $5.4 billion to $5.6 billion in 2025 adjusted free cash flow, with a management target of returning 85% or more of that amount to shareholders. This is down from an earlier projection of approximately $6 billion.

Proprietary Data Sets and Intellectual Property

The value here is in the indices and the models that underpin global capital allocation. The S&P 500 index itself is a core asset, with its performance tracked closely, for instance, rising 25% in 2024. The intellectual property extends to specialized data and AI-enhanced tools:

• The platform compresses more than 135 billion data points a year into actionable intelligence.
• The GenAI-powered CreditCompanion™ streamlines credit ratings discovery, integrating with other proprietary models.
• Sustainability data, like the S&P Global ESG Raw Data package, is sourced from the Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA).
• The Commodity Insights division saw revenue from energy transition products grow 23% in Q4 2024, reaching $104 million.

Here's a quick look at the profitability tied to these data assets:

Global Brand Reputation and Regulatory-Backed Status

Being a recognized rating agency is a massive barrier to entry. This status is reinforced by the consistent, high-margin performance of the Ratings division. For example, the Ratings operating margin expanded to 59.7% year-over-year in Q4 2024. The brand is also recognized externally, with S&P Global winning Market data vendor of the year in 2024.

Highly Skilled Data Scientists and Financial Analysts Globally

While a precise headcount for data scientists isn't public, the focus on high-touch client engagement shows the importance of the human element supporting the data. Management met with 85% of the company's top strategic customers in the last 100 days leading up to Q3 2025 earnings. The company is also actively investing in new leadership roles, such as creating a Chief Client Office.

Scalable Technology Platforms and Data Infrastructure

Capital IQ Pro is the flagship platform, sitting within S&P Global Market Intelligence, and it is rapidly integrating artificial intelligence to speed up research. You can use it to auto-extract KPIs and risk language from filings using Document Intelligence.

The platform's capabilities are expanding through key integrations and data coverage:

• Integration with Visible Alpha adds consensus estimates for over 7,300 companies.
• The Data Center Research add-on covers nearly 13,000 data center facilities using 100 metrics across 112 countries.
• The platform is designed to handle massive data volumes, compressing over 135 billion data points annually.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

S&P Global Inc. (SPGI) - Canvas Business Model: Value Propositions

You're looking at S&P Global Inc. (SPGI) to understand what truly anchors its value in the market as of late 2025. It's not just about providing data; it's about providing the essential intelligence that underpins trillions in capital flow and risk assessment.

Providing Essential Intelligence for confident decision-making

The core value S&P Global Inc. offers is the foundation for market trust. This is evident in their financial scale; for the twelve months ending September 30, 2025, total revenue reached $15.013B. This scale supports the intelligence across all divisions. Management is confident enough in this core value to raise the full-year 2025 revenue growth guidance to a range of 5% to 7%. You see this confidence reflected in the Q3 2025 adjusted diluted EPS of $4.73, showing that the intelligence translates directly into bottom-line performance.

World-leading benchmarks for passive and active investment strategies

The S&P Dow Jones Indices division provides the yardsticks the world uses to measure performance. Consider the S&P 500 Index, which, as of early 2025, was trading at more than 22x forward earnings, showing the market's reliance on its valuation. That index is also highly concentrated, with the 10 largest stocks accounting for nearly 40% of its total market capitalization, making the benchmark's construction and maintenance a critical service. For Q2 2025, this segment delivered strong results, with revenue increasing 15% to $446 million, driven by asset-linked fees growing 17%.

Here's a quick look at the scale of the segments driving this value proposition, based on recent reported figures:

The company is actively refining its portfolio to focus on these core benchmarks and intelligence offerings, evidenced by the completion of the OSTTRA Joint Venture sale in Q3 2025.

Independent, trusted credit ratings that are critical market infrastructure

The Ratings division is the bedrock of market trust, providing the independent assessments necessary for debt issuance and risk management. This value proposition is highly resilient; in Q3 2025, Ratings revenue increased 12% year-over-year, fueled by high-yield and bank loan issuance. This growth outpaced the overall company revenue growth of 9% for the quarter, underscoring the essential nature of this infrastructure. The adjusted operating margin for the Ratings segment was 60% for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, highlighting its high-quality, high-margin contribution to the firm.

• Ratings transaction revenue grew 54% in Q4 2024.
• Recurring revenue across all segments grew 7% in FY2024.

Integrated workflow solutions for financial professionals (Market Intelligence)

For financial professionals, S&P Global Inc. delivers integrated workflow solutions, primarily through Market Intelligence. This segment reported Q2 2025 revenue of $1.22 billion, with its Credit & Risk Solutions growing 7%. The value here is in the integration, such as the Data, Analytics, & Insights products, which grew 6% in that same quarter. To further enhance this workflow value, S&P Global Inc. announced the agreement to acquire With Intelligence in Q3 2025 for $1.8 billion, aiming to accelerate growth in this area.

The division's focus on private markets is also a key value driver:

• Private markets revenue rose 11% year-over-year to $148 million in Q2 2025.
• This growth was fueled by demand for CLOs, ABS, and project finance ratings.

Specialized data and insights for high-growth areas like Energy Transition

The Commodity Insights division provides specialized data crucial for navigating complex, evolving markets, including the Energy Transition. This segment delivered revenue growth of 6% in Q3 2025, driven by Energy & Resources Data & Insights. While facing modest headwinds from sanctions impacting 2025 by an estimated $6 million, the division continues to provide critical data. The overall adjusted operating margin for Commodity Insights was 45% for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, showing the value capture from specialized commodity intelligence.

You can see the importance of these specialized data feeds in the overall subscription revenue growth, which was 7% in Q2 2025.

S&P Global Inc. (SPGI) - Canvas Business Model: Customer Relationships

Dedicated relationship management for large institutional clients (high-touch)

S&P Global Inc. established a new Chief Client Office to enhance customer engagement across the enterprise, effective as of early 2025. In the lead-up to this, the President and CEO met with 85% of the company's top strategic customers within the first 100 days of 2025. This high-touch approach supports growth areas; for instance, Private Markets revenue increased by 11% year-over-year in Q2 2025, driven by strong engagement with stakeholders in private credit and project finance ratings.

Self-service digital platforms for data and analytics access (low-touch)

Client access is increasingly channeled through digital means, supported by strategic technology partnerships. The company is deploying AI/data partnerships with entities like Microsoft and Anthropic to expand distribution channels and enhance client access to data. Usage metrics show improvements, with increased utilization of platforms such as Platts Connect and Connect online delivery platforms.

Subscription-based model fostering long-term, recurring client engagement

The subscription model forms the core of S&P Global Inc.'s recurring revenue base, demonstrating resilience. For the full fiscal year 2024, Subscription revenue was $7.35 billion, representing 55.5% of total revenue. This recurring stream continues to show strength, with subscription products revenue increasing by 7% in the second quarter of 2025, following a 7% increase in the first quarter of 2025.

The composition of revenue highlights the reliance on these long-term contracts:

Advisory and consulting services for complex risk and sustainability issues

Advisory and specialized insights drive growth in key adjacencies. Revenue from Energy Transition and Sustainability products achieved double-digit revenue growth in 2024. The S&P Global Commodity Insights division, renamed S&P Global Energy, focuses on providing benchmarks, data, and insights for energy transition. The medium-term organic, constant currency revenue growth target for the Energy division is set between 6% to 8% on an average annual basis.

Training and support for proprietary software and data tools

Investments in customer experience and support translate directly into loyalty metrics. The Commodity Insights division created a new Customer Experience organization, which resulted in a material double-digit improvement in NPS (Net Promoter Score) for that division. The Market Intelligence division's 7% organic constant currency revenue growth in Q2 2025 was partly attributed to enhanced execution and customer engagement improvements.

Key indicators reflecting the success of support and platform engagement include:

• Material double-digit improvement in NPS for the Energy division.
• Increased usage of Platts Connect and Connect online delivery platforms.
• Medium-term organic revenue growth target for Market Intelligence: 6% to 8%.
• Medium-term organic revenue growth target for Ratings: 6% to 9%.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

S&P Global Inc. (SPGI) - Canvas Business Model: Channels

You're looking at how S&P Global Inc. gets its Essential Intelligence into the hands of its diverse, financially-literate user base as of late 2025. It's a multi-pronged approach, blending high-touch sales with massive digital distribution.

Direct sales force and relationship managers for enterprise clients

S&P Global Inc. relies heavily on its direct sales teams to secure large, recurring contracts, especially for its Market Intelligence and Ratings services. This high-touch channel targets institutional clients who need bespoke data solutions or complex credit opinions. While specific headcount for the sales force isn't public, the overall revenue structure suggests this channel is critical for capturing the bulk of the $7.35 B generated by the Subscription segment in fiscal year 2024. Relationship managers also drive adoption of premium digital tools like Capital IQ Pro.

Proprietary digital platforms (Capital IQ Pro, Platts Developer Platform)

The digital delivery mechanism is the core engine, especially following the IHS Markit integration. S&P Capital IQ Pro, enhanced with GenAI capabilities like Chart Explainer and Multi-Document ChatIQ as of mid-2025, serves as a primary access point for financial data and analytics. This platform now integrates peer group data from Visible Alpha, covering over 7,300 companies, and Headcount Analytics for over 4.3 million private companies. For the Commodity Insights business, the Platts Developer Portal provides API access to fundamental and pricing data. For instance, its Data Center Research add-on covers nearly 13,000 data center facilities across 112 countries.

The delivery of data via these platforms contributes significantly to the $7.35 B Subscription revenue reported in fiscal year 2024.

Third-party data distributors and financial news vendors

S&P Global Inc. ensures its data has broad market penetration by distributing through established third-party channels. This includes feeds to financial news vendors and integration partners. A key recent development in this area is the partnership with Google Cloud, making S&P Global Commodity Insights' AI-Ready Data available directly within Google Cloud's BigQuery platform as of August 2025. This strategy meets clients where they already operate, expanding reach beyond direct platform logins.

Licensing agreements with exchanges and asset managers

This channel is vital for generating usage-based and fixed-fee revenue, often categorized under Asset-Linked Fees or as part of the Non-Transaction revenue. The company earns usage-based royalties from licensing its proprietary market data and price assessments to commodity exchanges within the Commodity Insights segment. Furthermore, the Indices segment's revenue stream is directly tied to licensing agreements with exchanges and asset managers for the use of benchmarks like the S&P 500. The $1.05 B in Asset-Linked Fees for fiscal year 2024 reflects the success of these licensing models.

Web-based portals and feeds for data delivery

Beyond the primary Capital IQ Pro application, S&P Global Inc. uses various web-based portals and data feeds for specific data sets. Platts Connect and Ratings360 are examples of specialized web portals for specific user groups. The overall revenue from subscriptions, which is the largest component at 55.5% of total revenue in 2024, is fundamentally driven by the continuous delivery of data via these web-based and API channels.

Here's a quick look at the scale of the data delivery mechanisms as of the latest available full-year data:

The strategy is clearly weighted toward scalable digital access, which helps drive the operating margin expansion to 39.27% in 2024, compared to 32.17% the prior year.

You should review the Q4 2025 sales pipeline against the expected growth in capital markets activity for 2026, as that will be the true test of the direct sales force's effectiveness.

S&P Global Inc. (SPGI) - Canvas Business Model: Customer Segments

You're looking at the core users of S&P Global Inc.'s data, benchmarks, and analytics as of late 2025. These are the entities that pay for access to credit opinions, market intelligence, and index performance data. Honestly, the customer base is tightly clustered around the global financial ecosystem.

The overall revenue base for S&P Global Inc. in fiscal year 2024 was $14,208 million, with growth seen across all reportable segments. The segments that directly map to these customer groups are the primary revenue drivers.

Here's a look at the key customer groups and the data points that define their relationship with S&P Global Inc., based on the latest available full-year data (FY2024) and recent operational metrics:

The Market Intelligence segment, which serves many of these financial and corporate clients, compresses over 135 billion data points a year into actionable intelligence via platforms like S&P Capital IQ Pro. Furthermore, S&P Global announced a deal in October 2025 to acquire With Intelligence for $1.8 billion, specifically to bolster its presence in private markets, a key area for many institutional clients.

For the Indices segment, S&P Dow Jones Indices calculates over 830,000 indices and publishes benchmarks that provide the basis for 575 ETFs globally, representing $387 billion in invested assets.

The Ratings segment serves corporations issuing debt, and its revenue stream is partially captured by the Non-Transaction revenue line, which was $4.84 B in fiscal year 2024. This segment also provides global economic outlooks, forecasting global economic expansion of 3% in 2025.

The Commodity Insights client base is focused on energy and commodities, where S&P Global Commodity Insights analysts project primary energy demand growth of more than eight million boe/d in 2025.

You can see the concentration of revenue by segment in fiscal year 2024:

• Subscription revenue: $7.35 B
• Non-Transaction revenue: $4.84 B
• Asset-Linked Fees revenue: $1.05 B

The US remains the largest geographical market for S&P Global Inc., generating $8.64 B in revenue in fiscal year 2024, representing about 60.81% of total revenue.

S&P Global Inc. (SPGI) - Canvas Business Model: Cost Structure

You're looking at the cost base for S&P Global Inc. as we move through late 2025. Honestly, for a company whose value is in its data and intellectual property, the costs are heavily weighted toward maintaining and advancing that core asset base. The overall spending profile reflects a business that is information-intensive, requiring constant technological upkeep and high-caliber human capital.

For the twelve months ending September 30, 2025, S&P Global Inc.'s total operating expenses reached approximately $8.900B. This represents a year-over-year increase from the $8.628B reported for the full year 2024. The Q3 2025 results showed total expenses holding steady at $2.22 billion compared to the prior quarter, even as revenue grew, which helped drive the adjusted operating profit margin up to 52.1% for the quarter. It's a constant balancing act between spending to grow and spending to defend market share.

Here's a quick look at the scale of the business and its recent cost performance:

High fixed costs related to data collection and technology infrastructure

The infrastructure costs are substantial because S&P Global Inc. deals in massive, proprietary datasets that require continuous collection, cleansing, storage, and delivery. While the 2024 reported capital expenditures were relatively modest at $124 million, this figure often excludes the heavy, recurring operational costs associated with cloud services, data licensing fees, and maintaining the core technology platforms that deliver the essential intelligence. The shift in the macro landscape, as noted by S&P Global Ratings research, shows that data center and AI-related investments are now a dominant cost driver across the economy, and S&P Global Inc. is right in the thick of that spending.

Significant personnel expenses for analysts and data scientists

The credibility of the Ratings and Analytics segments hinges on the expertise of its people. You're paying for top-tier financial minds, economists, and increasingly, data scientists. Compensation expense is a major component of the operating costs, directly tied to the quality of the output. While specific personnel cost figures aren't explicitly broken out in the latest summaries, the overall expense growth reflects the need to retain and attract talent in highly competitive fields like quantitative analysis and credit assessment.

Investment in AI and product development to maintain competitive edge

This is where a significant portion of discretionary spending goes. S&P Global Inc. is actively reinvesting to ensure its products remain indispensable. The company's own research highlights that AI-related business investment has surged, and they are clearly participating in this trend. This investment covers R&D for new analytical tools and the integration of AI into existing platforms, like the expected launch of AlphaStreet Intelligence, which is described as an AI-driven market intelligence platform. S&P Global Ratings forecasts global IT spending, heavily influenced by AI, to grow by 9% in 2025, with software spending accelerating to around 10% growth, indicating the scale of investment required just to keep pace in the industry.

Sales, General, and Administrative (SG&A) expenses for global operations

Running a global operation that spans credit ratings, benchmarks, and market intelligence requires a significant SG&A footprint. This covers everything from the global sales force needed to service institutional clients to the general overhead of maintaining offices and corporate functions worldwide. The margin expansion seen in Q3 2025, where adjusted operating margin hit 52.1%, suggests that revenue growth is currently outpacing the growth in these operating costs, but SG&A remains a large, necessary expense base for a company of this scale.

• Global sales force compensation and travel.
• Corporate overhead and real estate costs across multiple jurisdictions.
• Costs related to the ongoing integration and separation activities, such as the OSTTRA divestiture assumed to complete in the second half of 2025.

Costs associated with regulatory compliance and legal defense

Operating in the credit ratings and financial data space means intense scrutiny. Compliance costs are non-negotiable and rising. These expenses cover adherence to global financial regulations, data privacy laws, and the overhead required to manage potential litigation or regulatory inquiries inherent in providing market-moving opinions. For instance, recent sanctions introduced could contribute a headwind of approximately $6 million to the Commodity Insights segment in 2025 alone, illustrating how external regulatory shifts translate directly into operational costs.

S&P Global Inc. (SPGI) - Canvas Business Model: Revenue Streams

You're looking at how S&P Global Inc. actually brings in the cash, and honestly, it's a mix of sticky, recurring money and transaction-based flow. The core strength is definitely in the recurring side of things.

The full-year 2025 Trailing Twelve Months (TTM) revenue, as of September 30, 2025, hit approximately $15.013 billion. That gives you the big picture for the year leading up to late 2025.

The recurring revenue base is clearly important; for instance, in the second quarter of 2025, revenue from subscription products overall saw a 7% year-over-year increase. That recurring nature provides a solid floor for the business.

Here's a breakdown of the key revenue drivers based on the second quarter of 2025 performance, which helps map out where the money is coming from:

• S&P Dow Jones Indices revenue reached $446 million in Q2 2025.
• Market Intelligence segment revenue was $1.22 billion in Q2 2025.
• Commodity Insights segment revenue was $555 million in Q2 2025.
• Mobility segment revenue grew to $438 million in Q2 2025.
• Ratings segment revenue was $1.1 billion in Q2 2025.

The Indices business is a prime example of a high-growth stream tied to asset values. Asset-linked fees within S&P Dow Jones Indices specifically grew by 17% in Q2 2025. That's pure upside tied to market performance and product adoption.

Transaction revenue, which you see in the Ratings segment, is more cyclical. Ratings revenue, which covers debt issuance and bank loan ratings, increased by 1% year-over-year to $1.1 billion in Q2 2025. Management noted that bond issuance volatility impacted this stream.

Licensing fees for proprietary data and software are embedded across the data-heavy divisions. For example, within Market Intelligence, the Data, Analytics, & Insights component grew by 6%. Also, the Commodity Insights division's 8% revenue growth was supported by subscription price assessments and new climate risk analytics launches.

To give you a clearer picture of the Q2 2025 revenue mix across the main operating segments:

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.