Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE) is an Atlanta-based operator of financial market infrastructure comprising regulated exchanges, clearing houses, and data and technology businesses. It owns and operates the New York Stock Exchange, along with a network of derivatives exchanges including ICE Futures U.S., ICE Futures Europe, and ICE Futures Singapore, which trade energy benchmarks (Brent crude, WTI, natural gas, power, carbon allowances), agricultural commodities (sugar, coffee, cotton, cocoa), and financial futures. ICE also runs six clearing houses providing central counterparty clearing and margining for these markets. The company organises its business into three reporting segments: Exchanges (listings, trading, and clearing across its 13 regulated exchanges), Fixed Income and Data Services (bond pricing, reference data, indices, and analytics for institutional customers), and Mortgage Technology (a digital platform spanning origination through servicing for US mortgage lenders). This combination of exchange operations, proprietary data, and workflow software distinguishes it from single-asset-class exchange operators such as CME Group or Nasdaq; the mortgage technology arm in particular gives ICE revenue exposure to US housing finance that its exchange peers do not have. ICE was founded in May 2000 by Jeffrey Sprecher, who remains chairman and CEO, initially to bring electronic trading and price transparency to over-the-counter energy markets. It acquired the New York Stock Exchange in 2013 for roughly 8.2 billion dollars, then built out its mortgage technology business through the 2020 acquisition of Ellie Mae for about 11 billion dollars and the 2023 acquisition of Black Knight for about 13.1 billion dollars. ICE trades on its own exchange under the ticker NYSE:ICE and is a component of the S&P 500. For fiscal year 2025 it reported net revenues of approximately 9.93 billion dollars and had roughly 12,800 employees. In October 2025 ICE agreed to invest up to 2 billion dollars in the prediction-market platform Polymarket, becoming a distributor of its event-driven data to institutional customers. In March 2026 it took a roughly 200 million dollar minority stake in crypto exchange OKX at a 25 billion dollar valuation, and in June 2026 the two companies formed a 50-50 joint venture, co-chaired by former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, intended to give OKX's user base access to ICE futures and tokenized NYSE-listed equities pending regulatory approval.
