Standard & Poor's

Financial Data and Analyticsspglobal.com

S&P Global operates a multi-divisional financial data, analytics, and credit ratings platform serving financial institutions, governments, corporates, index providers, and energy market participants across 190+ countries via subscriptions and index licensing.

Company typePublic
Founded1908
HeadquartersNew York, United States
Headcount5,001–10,000
GTM typeB2B
OfferingSoftware

What Standard & Poor's does

S&P Global (Standard & Poor's) operates a multi-divisional financial data, analytics, and credit ratings platform serving financial institutions, governments, corporates, index providers, and energy/commodities market participants across more than 190 countries. The company is organized around five core divisions — Market Intelligence, Ratings, Energy & Commodity Insights (including Platts), S&P Dow Jones Indices, Mobility, and Sustainable1 — and is built on proprietary data assets covering approximately 60 million private companies, 109,000+ public companies, and 7,300+ ESG-assessed companies. The 2022 merger with IHS Markit materially expanded the platform into mobility, energy/commodity benchmarks, and supply chain data, consolidating S&P Global into an integrated workflow vendor across credit, capital markets, and commodity intelligence.

The underlying technology combines these proprietary datasets with analytics workflows (e.g., Capital IQ Pro) and benchmark indices such as the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average, which are embedded into trillions of dollars of passively tracked investment products. The business model is predominantly subscription-based: enterprise term licenses, recurring analytics contracts, and licensing royalties tied to proprietary indices. Pricing is quote-based with no published list rates, and distribution relies on a global enterprise field sales organization targeting large institutional and corporate buyers. Customer segments are diversified across financial services, public sector, corporates, and energy/commodities.

Intellectual property extends well beyond raw data to include GICS sector classification, proprietary ratings methodologies, and brand-anchored indices that have become regulatory-recognized benchmarks (e.g., for Basel III capital treatment). Recent product investment has emphasized AI-augmented analytics inside Capital IQ Pro, the launch of the S&P Global Institute (2024), and the partnership-anchored AutoCreditInsight product (2026, with TransUnion), signaling a continued shift from static data delivery to decision-support and workflow-embedded analytics.

Standard & Poor's firmographics

Firmographics

Name: Standard & Poor's
Legal name: S&P Global Inc.
Website: https://spglobal.com
Company type: Public
Founded year: 1908
Operating status: Operating
Headcount range: 5,001–10,000 employees
Short description: S&P Global operates a multi-divisional financial data, analytics, and credit ratings platform serving financial institutions, governments, corporates, index providers, and energy market participants across 190+ countries via subscriptions and index licensing.
Ownership category
akta.pro rank

Standard & Poor's industry classification

Industry

Product category: Financial Data and Analytics
akta.pro primary industry: Commodity Market Data, Pricing & Benchmark Administrators (Commodity Indices/Assessments) (FSAFAMAJ)

Keywords

Credit ratings
Financial market intelligence
Energy commodity data
Stock market indices
ESG analytics

Where Standard & Poor's is headquartered

Location

Headquarters

HQ city: New York
HQ country: United States
HQ region: North America

Offices5 records

Markets served

Standard & Poor's business model

Business model

GTM type: B2B
Offering type: Software
Cost components: Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

Ratings Services: Credit ratings and related analytical services for debt issuers, investors, and financial institutions globally
Market Intelligence Subscriptions: Subscription-based access to Capital IQ Pro, company data, financial analysis tools, and research platforms
Energy & Commodity Data: Platts Connect and energy market data subscriptions providing real-time energy prices, benchmarks, and market analysis
Index Licensing: Licensing of S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and other indices for financial products including ETFs, futures, and mutual funds
ESG Data & Analytics: Corporate Sustainability Assessment and ESG scores sold to investors and corporations for sustainability analysis

Pricing tiers

Model	Billing	Price
Subscription	Annual	Enterprise subscription - Contact sales for pricing

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Standard & Poor's product offering

Product offering

Core offering

S&P Global provides essential intelligence for global capital and commodity markets through multiple divisions: independent credit ratings and research (S&P Global Ratings), financial and corporate market intelligence on 60M+ private and 109K+ public companies (Capital IQ Pro), real-time energy price benchmarks and market data (Platts Connect), flagship equity indices including the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average (S&P Dow Jones Indices), ESG scoring and sustainability data (S&P Global ESG Scores / SPICE), and automotive data (S&P Global Mobility). Offerings are sold primarily via enterprise subscriptions, ratings fees, and index licensing.

Product overview

S&P Global operates as a multi-divisional platform company offering essential intelligence across capital and commodity markets. The portfolio includes: S&P Global Market Intelligence (financial/industry data and research via Capital IQ Pro), S&P Global Ratings (credit ratings and analysis via Ratings360), S&P Global Energy/Commodity Insights (energy benchmarks and data via Platts Connect/Energy Core), S&P Dow Jones Indices (index provision including S&P 500), S&P Global Mobility (automotive data via CARFAX and AutoCreditInsight), and S&P Global Sustainable1 (ESG scores, SPICE indices). Premium datasets are distributed through the Marketplace platform via Cloud, Data Feed, and API Solutions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

Capital IQ Pro: Premier financial market intelligence platform with AI-powered insights and data on 60M+ private and 109K+ public companies
Platts Connect
Ratings360
SPICE
CARFAX
automotiveMasterMind
CERAWeek
The Journal of Commerce (JOC)

Products and services

S&P Capital IQ Pro
S&P Global Energy Core (Platts Connect)
S&P Global ESG Scores
Ratings360
SPICE (The Index Source for ESG Data)
AutoCreditInsight
Visible Alpha
S&P Global Marketplace
S&P Global Ratings
S&P Dow Jones Indices
S&P Global Sustainable1
S&P Global Institute

Quantifiable outcome

Serve 190+ countries with financial intelligence and ratings services
+2 more outcomes

Companies that use Standard & Poor's

Customer profile

Named customers10 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Standard & Poor's technology and API

Technology

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API: No
API docs
API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability10 records

Feature6 records

Standard & Poor's partnerships and signals

Strategic signal

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

IHS MarkitcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2022S&P Global completed merger with IHS Markit in 2022, creating a global leader in essential intelligence for markets. The merger combined IHS Markit's transportation, economics, and country risk expertise with S&P Global's existing ratings and data capabilities.
MSCIcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-development partnership for Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS), the industry classification standard used globally for classifying companies by sector and industry. Joint trademark ownership between S&P and MSCI.
OpenAIcoreTechnology or IntegrationMorgan Stanley partnership with OpenAI powering wealth management AI assistant. S&P Global Research cited this as example of generative AI adoption in banking sector.
TransUnionminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerS&P Global Mobility partnership with TransUnion for AutoCreditInsight, providing comprehensive vehicle registration and loyalty data with automotive loan origination activity.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Standard & Poor's competitors and assessment

Company assessment

Direct peers

Moody's Corporation: Moody's is the most direct peer to S&P Global, operating the Moody's Investors Service rating agency and Moody's Analytics platform. Both companies dominate the NRSRO-registered credit rating duopoly and compete directly in financial data, risk analytics, and ESG assessments, with comparable subscription revenue models.
MSCI Inc. MSCI is S&P Dow Jones Indices' principal competitor in equity index licensing, ESG ratings, and real estate benchmarks. MSCI co-developed the GICS industry classification standard with S&P and competes across index products, ESG data, and portfolio analytics used by asset managers globally.
Bloomberg L.P. Bloomberg Terminal is the dominant installed platform for financial market data and analytics, competing directly with S&P Capital IQ Pro. Bloomberg's integrated news, data, and analytics offering targets the same investment professional user base at financial institutions, corporations, and asset managers.
FactSet Research Systems: FactSet is a direct competitor to S&P Capital IQ Pro in financial data, portfolio analytics, and research workflows for buy-side and corporate clients. Both companies offer integrated data, analytics, and workflow tools targeting investment professionals with comparable subscription economics.
Morningstar, Inc. Morningstar competes with S&P Global Ratings in fund and credit research, with S&P Capital IQ Pro in equity data, and with S&P Dow Jones Indices in benchmarks. Morningstar's emphasis on retail and advisor segments provides differentiated overlap with S&P's institutional-focused franchise.
PitchBook Data: PitchBook is the leading private market data platform, competing directly with S&P Capital IQ Pro's growing private company coverage (60M+ private companies). Both target venture capital, private equity, and corporate development users with comparable deal, fund, and company data subscriptions.

Broad incumbents

LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group): LSEG acquired Refinitiv in 2021 and now operates one of the largest financial market data and analytics franchises globally. LSEG competes with S&P across market data, indices (FTSE Russell), and analytics, while also operating exchange infrastructure that creates adjacent competitive pressure.
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE): ICE operates major global exchanges (NYSE, ICE Futures) and owns ICE Data Services, competing with S&P in fixed income and commodity data. ICE's acquisition of Black Knight and focus on data infrastructure creates broad incumbent pressure across S&P's market intelligence and indices franchises.

Others

Dow Jones & Company (News Corp): Dow Jones is S&P's partner in the S&P Dow Jones Indices joint venture (which administers the Dow Jones Industrial Average) and operates the Wall Street Journal, Barron's, and MarketWatch. While not a direct competitor in data, Dow Jones co-owns index IP and competes in financial news and information services.

Emerging players

AlphaSense: AlphaSense is an emerging AI-native market intelligence platform that uses generative AI for enterprise research workflows. It targets the same buy-side and corporate research user base as S&P Capital IQ Pro and represents a credible disruptive threat to traditional research subscription models.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks1 record

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Standard & Poor's financial estimates

Financial estimate

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Standard & Poor's leadership team

Management profile

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Standard & Poor's subsidiaries and ownership

Company hierarchy

Subsidiaries7 records

Standard & Poor's funding detail

Funding detail

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Standard & Poor's M&A and investment

M&A and investment

M&A5 records

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Standard & Poor's

What does Standard & Poor's do?

Is Standard & Poor's a public or private company?

Standard & Poor's is a public company. It is classified as public and is currently operating.

When was Standard & Poor's founded?

Standard & Poor's was founded in 1908. It employs 5,001 to 10,000 people.

Where is Standard & Poor's based?

Standard & Poor's is headquartered in New York, United States, in the North America region.

How does Standard & Poor's make money?

Five revenue lines are on record. Ratings Services are the primary driver. The others are market Intelligence Subscriptions, energy & Commodity Data, index Licensing and ESG Data & Analytics.

Who are Standard & Poor's's main competitors?

Direct peers on record are Moody's Corporation, MSCI Inc., Bloomberg L.P., FactSet Research Systems, Morningstar, Inc. and PitchBook Data. Broad incumbents are LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). Dow Jones & Company (News Corp) is listed as an others. AlphaSense is listed as an emerging player.

Does Standard & Poor's have an API?

No public API is recorded for Standard & Poor's.

What industry is Standard & Poor's in?

Standard & Poor's's product category is Financial Data and Analytics. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSAFAMAJ, Commodity Market Data, Pricing & Benchmark Administrators (Commodity Indices/Assessments).