ICE FY2026 Q2 Improving

Intercontinental Exchange Inc. earnings call

Jul 30, 2026 · 08:30 ET Ben JacksonChris EdmondsJeff Sprecher earningscall_biz

Buzzberg read

Market Access acquisition to create global fixed income network

Intercontinental Exchange reported a record Q2 2026, driven by growth across its exchanges, data services, and mortgage technology segments. The company announced a definitive agreement to acquire Market Access for $5.7 billion, a strategic move to create a comprehensive global fixed income network by combining its retail/wealth distribution with Market Access's institutional liquidity and data. Management raised full-year guidance for recurring revenue growth, signaling confidence in the company's trajectory despite macroeconomic uncertainties. ICE reported record Q2 2026 revenue of $2.7bn, with a 24% increase in rates revenue on record open interest (up 50% in June).

Buzzberg read Market Access acquisition to create global fixed income network Intercontinental Exchange reported a record Q2 2026, driven by growth across its exchanges, data services, and mortgage technology segments. The company announced a definitive agreement to acquire Market Access for $5.7 billion, a strategic move to create a comprehensive global fixed income network by combining its retail/wealth distribution with Market Access's institutional liquidity and data. Management raised full-year guidance for recurring revenue growth, signaling confidence in the company's trajectory despite macroeconomic uncertainties. ICE reported record Q2 2026 revenue of $2.7bn, with a 24% increase in rates revenue on record open interest (up 50% in June). Read full analysisCollapse analysis

The company announced the $5.7bn acquisition of Market Access, expected to be immediately accretive to EPS and to create a global fixed income network.
Management raised FY2026 FIDS recurring revenue growth guidance to 7-8% and exchange recurring revenue growth to high single digits.
ICE is accelerating its 2027 capex into 2026, increasing full-year capex guidance to $850 million, signaling conviction in demand from AI-driven workflows and fixed income expansion.

Revenue$3.611B-2% QoQ

EPS$1.70-28% QoQ

Gross margin73.83%Reported

Free cash flow$1.736B+51% QoQ

6 grounded callouts

What matters now

The highest-signal changes from the call.

M&A

Market Access acquisition to create global fixed income network

AI increases data value with MCP server and Compass

Capex

Capex accelerated to $850 million for capacity

Show 3 more callouts

Guidance

FIDS recurring revenue guidance raised to 7-8%

Demand

Rates OI growth indicates durable structural demand

Mortgage AI agents live with clients in production

Reported period

Actuals

Metric	Reported	Change
Revenue	$3.611B	-2% QoQ
EPS	$1.70	-28% QoQ
Gross margin	73.83%	Reported
Free cash flow	$1.736B	+51% QoQ
Capex	$0.262B	Reported
Net income	$0.958B	-32% QoQ

Forward-looking

Forward guidance

Metric	Period	Range	Midpoint	Status
Capex	FY2026	$0.85B	$0.85B	Raised
RevenueEXCHANGE_RECURRING	FY2026	7%–9%	8%	Raised
RevenueFIDS_RECURRING	FY2026	7%–8%	7.5%	Raised

AI, capex & demand read

Management read

Tone

Confident

Management consistently highlighted record results, growth across segments, and strategic positioning, expressing confidence in future trajectory and the market access acquisition.

Management AI read

Management emphasized that AI is making their data more valuable, not less, with proprietary data delivered into clients' AI workflows via ICE MCP servers. They are embedding agentic AI into mortgage platforms to automate workflows and monetizing these AI tools, while investing in GPU capacity to support AI-driven demand.

Capex

Investment and capacity

The company accelerated its data center and hardware investments, pulling forward previously planned 2027 capex into 2026, now guiding full-year capex to approximately $850 million. This investment is to serve incremental demand from AI workflows and other growth initiatives.

all 9 named companies below

Companiesreturns since call

Customers

SCHW +1.8% BAC +3.2% EDJ

Customers

ICE points to Charles Schwab and other large wealth managers as key customers in the retail/wealth channel that the Market Access acquisition will expand and deepen.

Evidence

“ICE Bonds was built through our combination of BondPoint and TMC, and it serves the trading desk of the largest wealth management firms in the country, names like Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Merrill Lynch, and Edward Jones”

Jeff Sprecher

AZN -8.3%

Customers

AstraZeneca is cited as a major customer win for the NYSE, representing the largest transfer in its history and highlighting the listing business's competitive strength.

Evidence

“with nearly $400 billion in market cap having switched to the exchange, including the largest transfer in NYSE history, AstraZeneca”

Warren Gardiner

FITB +2.1%

Customers

Fifth Third Bank is cited as a major customer win for the NYSE, representing the largest bank transfer in its history.

Evidence

“and the largest bank transfer in exchange history, Fifth Third Bank”

Warren Gardiner

Partners

APO +10.8%

Partners

ICE's initiative with Apollo in private credit is a strategic collaboration to bring private credit clients onto ICE's fixed income rails, indicating a deepening partnership and potential to make Apollo's private credit assets more liquid and data-rich. The deal to acquire Market Access is directly tied to accelerating this Apollo partnership.

Evidence

“We have a plan to use the same rails to connect private credit clients who we're going to bring in via our initiative with Apollo.”

Jeff Sprecher

Supply chain

ORCL +20.1% VRT +15.9%

Supply chain

ICE is accelerating its 2027 CapEx into 2026 as it builds out data center halls (Hall 6 likely already presold) to meet AI-driven demand. — This signals a physical supply-chain constraint in data center capacity; vendors that provide the infrastructure for ICE's accelerated data center buildout will see a tangible order pull-in, benefiting near-term revenue opportunities.

Evidence

“We've elected to pull forward some of our originally planned 2027 CapEx into 2026. We now anticipate full year CapEx of approximately $850 million.”

Warren Gardiner

CME +0.2%

Supply chain

ICE's own treasury clearing system (approved) is central to its strategy to extend its fixed income network, though it's not a lead player in the US. The plan is to tie Market Access's treasury rates platform into ICE's clearing system, aiming to scale its US rates footprint. — This validates a durable competitive push into the US rates clearing market, directly threatening CME's incumbency and its related treasury data and execution revenue streams.

Evidence

“market access will bring us a growing treasury rates trading platform, which we plan to connect directly into our newly approved treasury clearing system, extending our credit and fixed income network into the interest rate markets.”

Jeff Sprecher

External signals

Supply-chain alpha · 2returns since call

ICE is accelerating its 2027 CapEx into 2026 as it builds out data center halls (Hall 6 likely already presold) to meet AI-driven demand.

Warren Gardiner

ORCL+20.1%VRT+15.9%

ICE's own treasury clearing system (approved) is central to its strategy to extend its fixed income network, though it's not a lead player in the US. The plan is to tie Market Access's treasury rates platform into ICE's clearing system, aiming to scale its US rates footprint.

Jeff Sprecher

CME+0.2%

Methodology & coverage

Management-only analysis. All 9 validated company mentions are shown. Reported actuals and forward guidance are kept separate. Public evidence is limited to eight short attributed quotes. AI-generated analysis can be incomplete or wrong; verify important claims against the original source.