Nasdaq, Inc.

Nasdaq, Inc. is an American financial technology company that operates securities exchanges, provides listing services for public companies, and sells market infrastructure technology, regulatory compliance software, and financial crime management solutions to banks, brokers, and market operators worldwide, generating $8.26 billion in total revenue in fiscal 2025. Best known for the eponymous stock exchange that transformed electronic trading, Nasdaq today earns most of its profit from technology subscriptions, data licensing, and index-linked investment products — businesses that look nothing like the exchange operator it was a decade ago.

This is a transformation story that came with a price tag. Nasdaq spent approximately $5.8 billion to acquire Adenza in 2023 and $2.75 billion for Verafin in 2021, loading the balance sheet with debt and staking the company's future on the thesis that exchanges should own the technology stack, not just the trading venue. The question the file turns on is whether the returns on that capital will compound from here — or whether the market has already priced in the success that is still being proven.

Between the record IPO quarter that included SpaceX's $86 billion offering and the crossing of $1 trillion in Index ETP assets under management, the second quarter of 2026 delivered the kind of results that make the transformation thesis look prescient. But the debt remains, the Adenza integration is only now reaching the synergy-harvesting phase, and the antitrust inquiry in Europe reminds investors that regulatory risk never fully departs for a company that sits at the center of the financial system. At a market capitalization of $51.3 billion and an enterprise value of $59.6 billion, Nasdaq is priced like a compounder — making the durability of its growth the central analytical question.