Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman on H1 Growth, IPO Market, and AI's Impact

Nasdaq's Strong First Half Performance

• 📈 Nasdaq achieved 12% revenue growth and 24% EPS growth in the first half of the year, with strong performance across all divisions.
• 💡 The financial technology division saw 10% growth, driven by client demand for risk management, anti-financial crime, and trade infrastructure solutions.
• 🚀 Capital access platforms, including index business, listings, and data/analytics, experienced 9% growth, with the index business up 17%.

Resurgence in the IPO Market

• 🌟 The exchange saw its best first half for listings since 2021, with 83 IPOs in the first half, including three of the top five largest.
• 🚀 Companies, particularly large-cap ones, have performed well, boosting investor confidence and encouraging more companies to go public, with a focus on the post-Labor Day period.
• 🔬 Sector-specific trends show a comeback in biotech and strong performance from digital-oriented companies in tech, software, AI infrastructure, and the crypto space.

Retail Investor Activity and Data Demand

• 💬 Retail investors have been highly active in the markets for the past five years, with their engagement accelerating and driving interest in index products.
• 📊 Nasdaq observed an increase in retail volumes in the second quarter and a global demand for its data, with the data business up 7%.
• 🌍 International demand for data is growing, reflecting increasing global interest in US stocks.

AI's Transformative Role in Financial Technology

• 🤖 Nasdaq is leveraging Artificial Intelligence to enhance efficiency for clients, particularly in anti-financial crime and regulatory reporting.
• ⚡ New digital worker agents are being rolled out to automate alert assessments, write-ups, and submissions, potentially reducing human workload by 80%.
• ⚙️ AI is also being integrated into regulatory reporting and surveillance, offering significant efficiency gains for financial institutions.

Tokenization and Future Market Infrastructure

• 🔑 Tokenization is viewed as a technology that can enable new functionalities, similar to existing instruments like contracts for difference or fractional shares.
• 🌐 Nasdaq sees tokenization as a way to open up access and is excited to work with the industry as an enabler and core infrastructure provider.
• 💡 The company is exploring how its own index products can be offered through this new technology.