Nasdaq Q1 2026 Record Growth Driven by AI Investment and Infrastructure Modernization

Key factors behind Nasdaq’s record Q1 2026 growth (with emphasis on AI spending and capex)

Nasdaq described Q1 2026 as “one of the strongest starts…in our company’s history,” with the company posting $1.4 billion net revenue (+13% YoY) and record Q1 growth since 2021 across key lines. ¹ Nasdaq also reported record Financial Technology revenue growth of 18% and diluted EPS growth of 21%. ¹ The drivers most relevant to AI spending and capital expenditures (capex-like infrastructure buildout) fall into three buckets: (1) demand pull from customers increasing AI investment, (2) Nasdaq’s own “AI on the business” operating investments and productization, and (3) the capex environment affecting clients’ modernization of infrastructure and platform transition.

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1) Customer demand pull: “continued capital deployment in AI” and data center build-out

Nasdaq explicitly tied the macro environment to customer AI spending. Management stated that in the U.S., “continued capital deployment in AI” is a key offset to softer labor conditions and inflation pressures, and that AI investment is a “meaningful driver” of economic activity through “large-scale data center and infrastructure build-out.” ¹ This matters because Nasdaq’s core revenues are supported by demand for modern market/banking/financial technology infrastructure (cloud, data, regulatory workflow automation), which typically scales when customers spend on AI and related compute/data infrastructure. ¹

Implication for Q1 growth: When customers accelerate AI-driven modernization, Nasdaq benefits through stronger bookings/expansion tied to cloud + AI-enabled products and services. Nasdaq pointed to sustained engagement and bookings strength across Financial Technology, including 64 new client signings, 1 cross-sell, and 85 upsells in Q1. ²

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2) Nasdaq’s own AI commercialization: “AI on the business” and AI-enabled client solutions

2.1 Internal AI investments aimed at expense efficiencies (AI-driven operating leverage)

Nasdaq described an internal program to drive AI adoption in its operations (“AI on the business”). ³ The company said it is striving to achieve $100 million of expense efficiencies by the end of 2027, with most of that showing up in 2027 because Nasdaq is also making “investments in AI” to achieve those efficiencies. ³

Nasdaq then specified where it plans to apply automation from GenAI capabilities, including:

• automating parts of the product development life cycle (speed, cleaner code, faster delivery of capabilities to clients), ³
• automating client success areas (client service, implementations, managing client interactions), ³
• and using GenAI benefits across functional teams (automation in finance, marketing, legal, HR). ³

This is directly relevant to capex-like spending because it signals that some of Nasdaq’s “AI investment” is being directed toward systems/engineering and automation that can reduce cost growth later. ³ Even in Q1 itself, the company showed operating leverage: operating income up 17% and operating margin 57% (up 2 pp). ⁴ While Nasdaq did not explicitly label this as “capex,” the described AI investment program is consistent with ongoing technology spend aimed at future expense efficiencies. ³

2.2 Client-facing AI adoption translating into bookings and revenue growth

Nasdaq provided multiple datapoints showing that customers are actively adopting AI features:

• In Corporate Solutions, 74% of IR Insight users and 51% of Boardvantage users leverage Nasdaq AI solutions. ²
• Nasdaq’s investment AI-ready data is used by asset managers/GPs/institutional investors representing over $9 trillion AUM, and this helped drive 29% YoY increase in Q1 bookings. ²
• In Financial Technology, management described record revenue growth 18%, with strong bookings momentum and a land-and-expand pattern; it also noted cloud’s role in ACV bookings (see below). ²

In Financial Crime Management (Nasdaq Verafin), Nasdaq emphasized advanced AI-driven innovation and “Agentic-AI” deployment:

• Nasdaq stated its Agentic-AI workforce is deployed by more than 500 clients (up 40% since Investor Day). ⁵
• It also highlighted a planned launch of a drug trafficking analytic embedding generative AI directly into models and synthesizing multiple data sources. ⁵
• Verafin delivered 21% revenue growth and more than 2,800 clients with nearly $12 trillion collective assets. ⁵

Implication for Q1 growth: AI adoption is not just aspirational; management links it to user penetration and deployment levels, which typically support renewal/expansion and ACV bookings (and therefore revenue growth). ²⁵

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3) Cloud + infrastructure modernization: “client transition to cloud” and related capex effects

Nasdaq’s Q1 Financial Technology performance repeatedly referenced cloud transition, which is often the operational destination for AI workloads (and therefore sits close to the capex/infrastructure theme).

• Nasdaq reported that cloud-based solutions accounted for 80% of ACV bookings in Q1. ²
• It also said a key expansion of an existing bank relationship was driven by the ability to deliver “cloud and AI-enabled regulatory solutions.” ²
• Nasdaq referenced structural trends including “clients…investments in the modernization of their core infrastructure.” ¹

This provides the bridge between AI spending and capex: customers spending on AI (including data center/infrastructure build-out) ¹ tends to flow into cloud migrations and modernization of regulatory/market infrastructure—areas where Nasdaq’s products are positioned. ¹²

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Putting it together: what drove “record growth” in Q1 2026 (AI + capex relevance)

Based on the excerpts, the record Q1 2026 growth appears driven by a reinforcement loop:

1. Macro capex/AI build-out at customers: Nasdaq cited “continued capital deployment in AI” and “large-scale data center and infrastructure build-out” supporting economic activity. ¹
2. Modernization and cloud transitions: management said clients are moving forward with modernization of core infrastructure, and cloud-based solutions were 80% of ACV bookings in Q1. ¹²
3. AI adoption becoming measurable at the product level: penetration metrics (e.g., 74%/51% AI usage in Corporate Solutions) and deployments (Agentic-AI workforce used by 500+ clients) indicate real adoption supporting bookings and revenue. ²⁵
4. Nasdaq’s own AI investment for future efficiencies: Nasdaq described an AI-enabled internal program targeting $100 million of expense efficiencies by end-2027, which is expected to require ongoing AI investments in the near term. ³ This aligns with Q1 profitability strength (operating margin and operating income growth). ⁴

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Financial snapshot (to anchor the growth)

• Net revenue: $1.4B (+13% YoY). ⁴
• Solutions revenue: $1.1B (+14%). ⁴
• Financial Technology revenue: $517M (+18%) and ARR +16%. ⁴⁶
• Operating income: $799M (+17%). ⁷
• Operating margin/EBITDA margin: 57% / 60%, each up 2 pp. ⁴
• Free cash flow: $629M in Q1 (and $2.1B over last 12 months). ⁸

These results provide the “record growth” context within which the AI spending and infrastructure modernization thesis appears to have operated. ¹⁴

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