New Growth Targets, $3B Buyback, and Big Push into AI, Cloud, Blockchain
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New Growth Targets, $3B Buyback, and Big Push into AI, Cloud, Blockchain
013 mins
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Cloud, AI and blockchain push: Nasdaq says it is “fully scaled in cloud,” is migrating options markets to its Fusion platform (seven of eight live), building an intelligence layer and plans to deploy hundreds—scaling to thousands—of AI agents, while preparing 23/5 trading subject to regulatory approval.
Financial targets, productivity and capital returns: Management raised medium‑term growth outlooks—solutions revenue to 9%–12%, CAP to 6%–10%, FinTech to 10%–14%—announced a GenAI productivity program targeting $100 million in run‑rate efficiencies by end of 2027, and the board approved a $3 billion share repurchase plus a dividend hike to $0.31 per share.
Tokenization and market modernization: Nasdaq is integrating blockchain-enabled tokenization to reduce post-trade fragmentation and inefficiencies, citing a potential $3–$6 billion market opportunity with benefits like programmability, faster collateral mobility and clearer audit trails.
Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) used its 2026 Investor Day to emphasize the company’s evolution into what Chair and CEO Adena Friedman described as “the trusted fabric of the world’s financial system,” with growth plans centered on cloud, artificial intelligence, and blockchain-enabled market modernization. Executives highlighted what they said was a transformed financial profile, a larger addressable market opportunity, and new medium-term growth targets across key business lines.
Friedman said Nasdaq’s strategic framework has consistently focused on three technologies—cloud, AI, and blockchain—as long-term industry disruptors. She argued that greater interconnectedness across asset classes and geographies has created both growth vectors for clients and new risks, including regulatory complexity and heightened cyber threats.
Friedman said Nasdaq is now “fully scaled in cloud” across internal operations, client solutions, and markets, and has integrated blockchain and digital asset capabilities into its market technology solutions. She also said the company is “ready for the next steps” toward tokenizing equities and enabling “always-on” market infrastructure, starting with 23/5 trading.
Friedman pointed to financial results over the past five years, stating Nasdaq grew revenue from $2.9 billion in 2020 to $5.2 billion in 2025, a 13% revenue CAGR. She also cited a 56% operating margin and $2.2 billion in cash flow, describing 109% cash flow conversion and calling the profile “best-in-class.”
Nasdaq also framed itself as increasingly comparable to software and data peers. Friedman said Nasdaq measured 2025 performance using the “Rule of 40,” calling Nasdaq a “Rule of 70 company.” She also cited a $38 billion serviceable addressable market (SAM) and an $86 billion total addressable market (TAM), adding that AI-driven automation could pull more manual workflows into automated states, potentially expanding the SAM.
Multiple clients appeared in testimonials, including Edward Jones CEO Penny Pennington, Franklin Templeton’s Rich Nuzum, eToro CEO Yoni Assia, Bank of Montreal CEO Darryl White, and Goldman Sachs executives. Themes across the videos included reliance on Nasdaq’s data, integrated platforms, compliance and fraud tools (including Verafin), and infrastructure scale.
Pennington said Edward Jones migrated to Nasdaq Basic real-time quotes, which “improved service quality, simplified our infrastructure, and it reduced cost.” Nuzum emphasized the value of clean, high-quality time series data for AI use cases and said Nasdaq’s tools reduce time spent collecting and cleaning data. Goldman Sachs representatives highlighted their use of Nasdaq’s Eqlipse platform and Verafin’s payment risk intelligence.
On a technology panel led by Global CTO Brad Peterson, Nasdaq executives described cloud migration progress and AI implementation in both internal operations and client products. Brenda Hoffman said Nasdaq moved three additional options markets to its Fusion platform, bringing seven of eight options markets onto Fusion, with the final market expected to migrate “this summer.” Hoffman said the platform delivers “19 microsecond latency” and processes “millions of messages a second,” while providing a standardized client connection experience.
Executives also discussed an “intelligence layer” designed to unify and govern data across product lines and enable AI at scale. Don Beery, who is leading AI innovation and implementation, said Nasdaq built a secure internal GenAI platform with governance features such as agent registration, observability, and a “kill switch.” Beery said Nasdaq plans to deploy “hundreds of agents globally” this year, scaling to “thousands of agents by the end of 2027.”
Several AI product examples were shared:
Trade Surveillance: Hoffman said AI agents in the development lifecycle helped deliver “approximately 20% reduction in cycle time” for handling changes across data inputs and 200 alert types.
Capital Access Platforms AI-ready data: Angie Ruan said Nasdaq built a “patent pending” transformation mechanism to convert unstructured documents into context-aware AI-ready data, citing “more than 50% relevant answer and 70% more token efficient,” and said adoption has been strong among large asset managers.
Verafin Agentic AI Workforce: Hazel Dalton said the company launched the suite in 2025 to reduce operational costs and manual work in compliance workflows. Stephanie Champion later said more than 350 clients were using agentic workers within a few months of launch and cited a client reporting 4x productivity gains for sanctions workflows.
Nelson Griggs, who leads Capital Access Platforms (CAP), said CAP delivered $2.1 billion in 2025 revenue, 60% operating margin, and $1.3 billion in ARR (noting most index revenue is not included in ARR). Griggs said Nasdaq is raising CAP’s medium-term organic growth outlook to 6%–10%, citing strength in data and index, while moderating Workflow and Insights growth to reflect performance including “less of an opportunity in sustainability solutions.”
In Market Services, Tal Cohen and Kevin Kennedy highlighted leadership positions in U.S. equities and options and growth in proprietary index options. Cohen said proprietary index options revenue grew at a 66% CAGR over five years, and noted “Dynamic M-ELO” was “the first AI-enabled order type approved by the SEC.” Kennedy discussed the firm’s filing to add Mondays and Wednesdays expirations for short-term options on eight large companies plus IBIT options, describing the early impact as “additive to volume.”
Roland Chai, who was asked to lead digital assets in addition to European markets, discussed tokenization as a means to reduce market fragmentation and inefficiencies in post-trade workflows. He cited a potential market opportunity of $3 billion to $6 billion and described benefits such as programmability, mobility of collateral, and near-instant transferability with audit trails.
CFO Sarah Youngwood said Nasdaq has shifted its revenue mix toward solutions, with solutions revenue rising from 66% to 76% of total revenue. Youngwood reiterated a $38 billion SAM and $86 billion TAM and said Nasdaq projects TAM growth of 6% CAGR and SAM growth of 9% CAGR over the next five years. She announced Nasdaq is increasing its solutions revenue medium-term outlook to 9%–12% (from 8%–11%), and said CAP’s outlook rises to 6%–10% while FinTech remains 10%–14%.
Youngwood also announced a GenAI productivity program targeting $100 million in run-rate efficiencies actioned by year-end 2027. On capital return, she said the board increased share repurchase authorization to $3 billion and approved a dividend increase of $0.04 to $0.31 per share, reflected in the June 26 payment.
During Q&A, management said 23/5 trading is expected to be operationally and technically ready in the second half of the year, subject to regulatory approval and industry readiness. Executives also discussed pricing and compute economics for AI features, noting some AI capabilities are included in existing agreements while others are priced as add-on modules, and stressed focus on delivering ROI to clients while recouping Nasdaq’s costs.
Nasdaq, Inc is a global financial technology company that operates one of the world’s leading electronic securities exchanges and provides a broad array of products and services to capital markets participants. Its core activities include operating the Nasdaq Stock Market and other trading venues, developing and supplying market technology and matching engines to exchanges and trading firms, licensing market data and indices, and offering clearing, trade execution and post-trade solutions. The company also provides market surveillance, risk management and regulatory technology used by exchanges and regulators.
Founded in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) as the first electronic stock market, Nasdaq has evolved into a diversified marketplace and technology provider.
