RELX

RELX reported £9.4 billion revenue in 2024, with 7% underlying growth and adjusted operating margin of 33.9%—the highest in its sector. First half 2025 continued the momentum: 7% revenue growth to £4.7 billion, with margins expanding to 34.8%. This profitability comes from a specific advantage: RELX doesn't sell information, it sells processed information. The company invests 70% of R&D budget in AI and data integration, creating products that answer questions rather than just providing documents.

The Legal segment demonstrates this most clearly. LexisNexis Legal grew revenue 9% in H1 2025, with operating profit ahead of revenue at 11%. The acceleration came from Lexis+ AI and Protégé—tools that don't just search case law, they analyze it. Customers upgrading to Lexis+ AI show "double-digit spend uplift," paying more because the tool does work they'd otherwise hire associates to do. This is mutualism: lawyers get faster research, RELX captures part of the value created.

Scientific, Technical & Medical showed 5% revenue growth excluding print, with article submissions up 20% and publications up 10%. The launches of Scopus AI and ScienceDirect AI in 2024-2025 add generative AI to research platforms, helping scientists find relevant papers, summarize findings, and identify gaps. Risk & Business Analytics grew 8%, driven by LexisNexis Risk Solutions (financial crime compliance, digital identity verification, fraud detection)—now 35% of RELX revenue.

This is network effects compounding through data. More researchers submit to RELX journals, creating more content to train AI models, improving the tools, attracting more users. More lawyers use Lexis+, generating query data that refines the algorithms, making answers more accurate. The business model extracts value at the chokepoint: professionals can't do their jobs without access to verified information, and RELX has spent decades building the databases nobody else can replicate. The £1.5 billion share buyback in 2025 demonstrates surplus generation—the company grows revenue, expands margins, and still has cash to return to shareholders.