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Nature of Operations and Basis of Presentation (Policies)
 9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2025
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
Nature of Operations
S&P Global Inc. (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, “S&P Global,” the “Company,” “we,” “us” or “our”) is a provider of credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics and workflow solutions in the global capital, commodity and automotive markets.

Our operations consist of five reportable segments: S&P Global Market Intelligence (“Market Intelligence”), S&P Global Ratings (“Ratings”), S&P Global Commodity Insights (“Commodity Insights”), S&P Global Mobility (“Mobility”) and S&P Dow Jones Indices (“Indices”).
•Market Intelligence is a global provider of multi-asset-class data and analytics integrated with purpose-built workflow solutions.
•Ratings is an independent provider of credit ratings, research, and analytics, offering investors and other market participants information, ratings and benchmarks.
•Commodity Insights is a leading independent provider of information and benchmark prices for the commodity and energy markets.
•Mobility is a leading provider of solutions serving the full automotive value chain including vehicle manufacturers (Original Equipment Manufacturers or OEMs), automotive suppliers, mobility service providers, retailers, consumers, and finance and insurance companies.
•Indices is a global index provider maintaining a wide variety of valuation and index benchmarks for investment advisors, wealth managers and institutional investors.
On April 29, 2025, we announced that our Board of Directors decided to pursue a full separation of our Mobility segment, creating a new publicly traded company. The transaction, which would be implemented through the spin-off of shares of the new company to S&P Global shareholders, is expected to be tax-free for U.S. federal income tax purposes for S&P Global shareholders and is expected to be completed over the 12 to 18 months from its announcement, subject to the satisfaction of customary legal and regulatory requirements and approvals.
Basis of Presentation
The accompanying unaudited financial statements of the Company have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”) for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and notes required by U.S. GAAP for complete financial statements. Therefore, the financial statements included herein should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and notes included in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024 (our “Form 10-K”). Certain prior-year amounts have been reclassified to conform with current presentation.

In the opinion of management, all normal recurring adjustments considered necessary for a fair statement of the results of the interim periods have been included. The operating results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2025 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the full year.
Use of Estimates On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates and assumptions, including those related to revenue recognition, business combinations, allowance for doubtful accounts, valuation of long-lived assets, goodwill and other intangible assets, pension plans, incentive compensation and stock-based compensation, income taxes, contingencies and redeemable noncontrolling interests.
Restricted Cash
Restricted Cash
We had restricted cash of less than $1 million included in our consolidated balance sheets
Contract Assets, Unearned Revenue, Remaining Performance Obligations and Costs to Obtain Contracts
Contract Assets

Contract assets include unbilled amounts from when the Company transfers service to a customer before a customer pays consideration or before payment is due. As of September 30, 2025 and December 31, 2024, contract assets were $81 million and $69 million, respectively, and are included in accounts receivable in our consolidated balance sheets.
Unearned Revenue

We record unearned revenue when cash payments are received in advance of our performance. The increase in the unearned revenue balance at September 30, 2025 compared to December 31, 2024 is primarily driven by cash payments received in advance of satisfying our performance obligations, offset by $3.2 billion of revenues recognized that were included in the unearned revenue balance at the beginning of the period.

Remaining Performance Obligations

Remaining performance obligations represent the transaction price of contracts for work that has not yet been performed. As of September 30, 2025, the aggregate amount of the transaction price allocated to remaining performance obligations was $4.9 billion. We expect to recognize revenue on approximately fifty-five percent and eighty percent of the remaining performance obligations over the next 12 and 24 months, respectively, with the remainder recognized thereafter.

We do not disclose the value of unfulfilled performance obligations for (i) contracts with an original expected length of one year or less and (ii) contracts where revenue is a usage-based royalty promised in exchange for a license of intellectual property.

Costs to Obtain Contracts

We recognize an asset for the incremental costs of obtaining a contract with a customer if we expect the benefit of those costs to be longer than one year. We have determined that the costs associated with certain sales commission programs are incremental to the costs to obtain contracts with customers and therefore meet the criteria to be capitalized. Total capitalized costs to obtain contracts were $314 million and $291 million as of September 30, 2025 and December 31, 2024, respectively, and are included in prepaid and other current assets and other non-current assets on our consolidated balance sheets. The capitalized asset will be amortized over a period consistent with the transfer to the customer of the goods or services to which the asset relates, calculated based on the customer term and the average life of the products and services underlying the contracts which has been determined to be approximately 2 to 5 years. The expense is recorded within selling and general expenses.

We expense sales commissions when incurred if the benefit of those costs is one year or less. These costs are recorded within selling and general expenses.
Equity in Income on Unconsolidated Subsidiaries
Equity in Income on Unconsolidated Subsidiaries

As of September 30, 2025, the Company holds an investment in a 50/50 joint venture arrangement with shared control with CME Group that combines each company’s post-trade services into a joint venture, OSTTRA. The joint venture provides trade processing and risk mitigation operations and incorporates CME Group’s optimization businesses (Traiana, TriOptima, and Reset) and the Company’s MarkitSERV business. The combination is intended to increase operating efficiencies of both the company's business to more effectively service clients with enhanced platforms and services for OTC markets across interest rate, FX, equity, and credit asset classes. Our share of earnings or losses are recognized in Equity in income on unconsolidated subsidiaries in our consolidated statements of income.
Recently Issued or Adopted Accounting Standards Recently Issued or Adopted Accounting Standards
In September of 2025, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued accounting guidance that clarifies the guidance on which contracts are subject to derivative accounting and guidance on accounting for share based payments on contracts with customers. This guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2026, and interim reporting periods within those annual reporting periods, and early adoption is permitted. We do not expect this guidance to have a significant impact on our consolidated financial statements.

In September of 2025, the FASB issued accounting guidance which removes references to prescriptive software development stages and includes an updated framework for capitalizing internal software costs. This guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2027, and interim reporting periods within those annual reporting periods, and early adoption is permitted. We do not expect this guidance to have a significant impact on our consolidated financial statements.

In July of 2025, the FASB issued accounting guidance that provides an optional practical expedient for estimating future credit losses based on current conditions as of the balance sheet date and assuming those conditions do not change over the remaining life of the accounts receivable. This guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2025, and interim reporting periods within those annual reporting, and early adoption is permitted. We do not expect this guidance to have a significant impact on our consolidated financial statements.

In May of 2025, the FASB issued accounting guidance to improve the requirements for identifying the accounting acquirer in ASC 805, Business Combinations. The amendments in this update revise current guidance for determining the accounting acquirer for a transaction effected primarily by exchanging equity interests in which the legal acquiree is a VIE that meets the definition of a business. This guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2026, and interim reporting periods within those annual reporting periods, and early adoption is permitted as of the beginning of an interim or annual reporting period. This guidance is required to be applied prospectively to any acquisition transaction that occurs after the initial application date. We do not expect this guidance to have a significant impact on our consolidated financial statements.
In November of 2024, the FASB issued accounting guidance which requires that an entity disclose, in the notes to financial statements, additional information about specific expense categories. The amendments in this update are effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2026, and interim reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2027. We are currently evaluating the impact of this guidance on the Company’s disclosures.

In December of 2023, the FASB issued accounting guidance that expands disclosures in an entity’s income tax rate reconciliation table and regarding cash taxes paid both in the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions. The guidance is effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2024, with early adoption permitted, and should be applied either prospectively or retrospectively. We are currently evaluating the impact of this guidance on the Company’s disclosures.