Compare moats
Up to three covered companies, band by band. Every call is a curated editorial judgment, never a disclosed figure — and every band carries its cited basis.
| AMD | Trane Technologies | RELX plc | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moat rating | narrow AMD's FY2025 10-K documents real but bounded advantages: approximately 7,200 U.S. patents and roughly 18,900 patent matters worldwide, an outright claim that 'We are the market share leader in semi-custom game console products,' and gross margin of 50% on revenue up 34% to $34.6 billion. The same filing sets the ceiling: 'Some of our competitors may possess stronger market positions, larger customer bases, more design wins, and greater financial, sales, marketing, and distribution resources than us'; Nvidia is named 'the discrete GPU market share leader'; and AMD relies on TSMC 'for the production of all wafers for microprocessor and GPU products at 7 nanometer (nm) or smaller nodes.' Advantages that are genuine, contested, and dependent on a shared foundry are narrow, not wide. | narrow Trane's FY2025 Form 10-K (filed 5 February 2026) makes exactly one rank claim about itself and it is hedged: 'We are one of the leading manufacturers in the world of HVAC systems and services and transport temperature control products and services'. It sits inside a Competitive Conditions section that opens 'Our products and services are sold in highly competitive markets throughout the world', describes 'a wide variety of competitors that vary by product line and services' including 'well-established regional or specialized competitors, as well as larger U.S. and non-U.S. corporations or divisions of larger companies', and names price first among 'the principal methods of competition in these markets', ahead of quality, delivery, service and support, technology and innovation. The risk factors push the same way: 'The markets that we serve are highly competitive', 'consolidation and new entrants (including non-traditional competitors) within our industries' 'could result in increased competition and pricing pressures', Trane competes 'with large companies and with smaller, local operators who may have customer, regulatory or economic advantages in the geographies in which they are located', and 'some of our competitors may employ pricing and other strategies that are not traditional'. What the filing does evidence is an advantage that gets paid for: 2025 net revenues of $21,321.9 million, up 7.5% from $19,838.2 million, of which the company's own bridge assigns 3.0 points to pricing; gross margin up 50 basis points to 36.2%; operating income of $3,967.4 million, 18.6% of revenues; and firm backlog up to $7,769.4 million from $6,747.7 million. But that advantage is not uniform in the same document: the EMEA pricing component was (0.3)% and its segment adjusted EBITDA margin fell 150 basis points to 18.3%, and Asia Pacific organic revenue fell 2.5% on 'lower volumes in China'. A position the company itself will only call 'one of the leading', defended in markets it calls highly competitive and priced unevenly across its three segments, is protection that is real but bounded. | wide Independent sources support entrenched positions in RELX's two content businesses. In legal research, a Stanford-led study of legal AI tools (arXiv 2405.20362v1, 2024-05-30, https://arxiv.org/html/2405.20362v1) says Thomson Reuters and LexisNexis "have historically enjoyed a virtual duopoly over the legal research market" (citing a 2006 article for that point) and "continue to be two of the largest incumbents now selling legal AI products". In scientific publishing, Larivière, Haustein and Mongeon in PLOS ONE (2015-06-10, https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0127502) found Reed-Elsevier published 24.1% of natural and medical sciences papers in 2013, the largest share, and that its Scientific, Technical & Medical division's profit margin "steadily increased from 30.6% to 38.9% between 2006 and 2013." RELX's 2025 Annual Report (published 2026-02-19) shows the economics continuing: revenue of £9,590m, adjusted operating profit of £3,342m and an adjusted operating margin of 34.8% against 33.9% in 2024, with 54% of revenue from subscriptions. The limits are in the same report. Its principal risks say "We operate in highly competitive and dynamic markets" that change with "technological innovations, such as the use of artificial intelligence" and "the entrance of new competitors". Exhibitions holds "a global market share of less than 10%" in "a fragmented industry", and the Chair noted "share price volatility across a number of sectors, including software and data services." Long-held positions in legal research and scientific publishing, with margins that have kept rising, support a wide rating. The main threat is AI-native competition, which has not yet slowed reported growth. |
| Moat type | intangibles ip The FY2025 10-K locates the durable asset in design IP rather than manufacturing: 'We rely on contracts and intellectual property rights to protect our products and technologies from unauthorized third-party copying and use,' with approximately 7,200 U.S. patents and about 18,900 patent matters worldwide spanning x86 EPYC/Ryzen CPUs, CDNA/RDNA graphics and the Versal/Zynq adaptive-SoC families, and it credits customer wins to 'our broad IP portfolio and leadership in design, integration and advanced packaging.' It is explicitly not cost_scale: AMD is fabless and 'utilize[s] Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) for the production of wafers' — the same leading-edge foundry its merchant competitors use, so no manufacturing-scale advantage accrues to it. | switching costs The filing rules out the obvious alternative in its own words. Item 1's Patents and Licenses paragraph says the Company 'does not consider any single patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, proprietary technology, technical data, business process or any other confidential information (or any related group of any such items) to be of material importance to any segment or to the business as a whole', and the matching risk factor is blunter: 'we do not believe that our business is materially dependent on a single intellectual property right or any group of them. In our opinion, engineering, production skills and experience are more responsible for our market position than our patents and/or licenses.' That is a company disclaiming an IP moat. Where the 10-K does locate durability is the installed equipment and the channel wrapped around it. The overview frames the entire growth plan that way - 'As an industry leader with an extensive global install base, our growth strategy includes expanding recurring revenue through services and rental options' - the principal products and services table carries 'Service agreements', 'Repair and maintenance services', 'Parts and supplies (aftermarket and OEM)' and 'Rental services' alongside the equipment itself, the Distribution paragraph puts U.S. sales through Trane's own 'branch sales offices, distributors and dealers across the country' and non-U.S. sales through 'numerous subsidiary sales and service companies with a supporting chain of distributors throughout the world', and the accounting policy confirms the contracts are multi-period: 'For extended warranties and long-term service agreements, revenue for these distinct performance obligations are recognized over time on a straight-line basis over the respective contract term.' Long-lived equipment serviced under term agreements by the manufacturer's own branches is the asset this filing keeps pointing at, which is why the moat is read as an installed-base tie rather than a patent estate. | intangibles ip RELX says its advantage is proprietary content and data. The 2025 Annual Report says it builds products by combining "our unique content and comprehensive data sets with advanced technologies", describes Lexis+ AI as "built and trained on one of the world's largest repositories of accurate and exclusive legal content", and cites more than 3,000 Elsevier journals including the Cell Press and The Lancet families. On the H1 2026 results call (2026-07-23, https://www.relx.com/~/media/Files/R/RELX-Group/documents/investors/transcripts/first-half-results-2026-transcript.pdf) the CEO said Risk grows by "leveraging our unique contributory and proprietary datasets, with over 90% of revenue coming from machine-to-machine interactions." Independent support comes from PLOS ONE (2015), which says libraries face a publisher oligopoly in which "each product represents a unique value and cannot be replaced". According to the annual report, in June 2025 LexisNexis agreed a strategic alliance with Harvey, an AI platform for legal and professional services, under which LexisNexis "will integrate its Lexis+ AI capabilities (powered by LexisNexis content) within the Harvey platform". Switching costs add to this: legal products are sold "on a paid subscription basis, with subscriptions often under multi-year contracts." |
| Leadership | fast follower The FY2025 10-K itself places AMD behind the pace-setter in its two most important markets: 'Our principal competitor in the supply of discrete graphics is Nvidia, who is the discrete GPU market share leader,' and the risk factors state Nvidia 'leverages its market position in data center GPU, financial resources, and proprietary software ecosystem to promote its systems and influences customers who do business with us.' AMD is nonetheless executing 'an annual cadence of leadership for AMD Instinct solutions' and has won gigawatt-scale commitments (OpenAI, 6 GW) — following fast and closely, not setting the pace. | co leader The company's own claim is comparative but never exclusive: 'We are one of the leading manufacturers in the world of HVAC systems and services and transport temperature control products and services' - one of, with no rank, no share figure and no competitor named anywhere in the filing. Competitive Conditions sets that against 'well-established regional or specialized competitors, as well as larger U.S. and non-U.S. corporations or divisions of larger companies', and the risk factors add that Trane competes 'with large companies and with smaller, local operators who may have customer, regulatory or economic advantages in the geographies in which they are located'. The scale behind the claim is substantial and disclosed - $21,321.9 million of 2025 net revenues, products sold in approximately 100 countries, backlog of $7,769.4 million - but the 10-K never asserts the top position in any market it serves. | co leader RELX's own 2025 Annual Report ranks its businesses as Risk "Key verticals #1", STM "Global #1", Legal "US #2" and "Outside US #1 or #2", and Exhibitions "Global #2". Independent sources, both dated, support two of these. PLOS ONE (2015) puts Reed-Elsevier first in natural and medical sciences publishing with 24.1% of 2013 papers, ahead of Springer (11.9%) and Wiley-Blackwell (11.3%). The Stanford study (2024-05-30) describes legal research as a historical duopoly of Thomson Reuters and LexisNexis, and found that "Lexis+ AI is the highest-performing system we test, answering 65% of our queries accurately." The publishing data is from 2013, Legal is second in the U.S. by RELX's own account, and the Risk and Exhibitions ranks are the company's own claims. That supports co-leader, not clear leader. |
| Pricing power | moderate FY2025 gross margin was 50%, up from 49% in 2024 per the 10-K — healthy and improving — but the same filing attributes average-selling-price pressure to competitors: Intel 'uses its microprocessor market position to price its products aggressively and target our customers and channel partners with special incentives. These aggressive activities have reduced and may reduce our unit sales and average selling prices for many of our products'. Pricing power is real but contested. | moderate Price is a separately disclosed component of growth in this filing and it is positive: of the 7.5% increase in 2025 net revenues, the company's bridge assigns 3.0% to pricing against 3.2% volume, 0.8% acquisitions and 0.5% currency, and gross margin rose 50 basis points to 36.2% 'primarily due to gross productivity and price realization, partially offset by inflation'. In the Americas the price component was 3.8% of an 8.0% revenue increase, and that segment's adjusted EBITDA margin rose 70 basis points to 21.6% 'primarily due to price realization and gross productivity, partially offset by inflation and continued business reinvestment'. What holds the band below strong is in the same bridge and the same risk factors: EMEA pricing was (0.3)% and its segment margin fell 150 basis points to 18.3%; Asia Pacific pricing was 0.4% on organic revenue down 2.5%; consolidation and new entrants 'could result in increased competition and pricing pressures'; and 'in the event there is deflation, we may experience pressure from our customers to reduce prices.' Price that sticks in the Americas, disappears in EMEA and is disclaimed as durable in the risk factors is moderate rather than strong. | moderate The 2025 Annual Report says RELX products "often account for less than 1% of our customers' total cost base but can have a significant and positive impact on the economics of the remaining 99%", and reports a group adjusted operating margin of 34.8% in 2025 against 33.9% in 2024. On the H1 2026 call the CFO reported a margin of 35.5%. He attributed the gains to cost discipline: "we focus on ensuring that cost growth remains below revenue growth in all of our businesses." The CEO said that "roughly 3/4 of the renewal value is coming from the Lexis+ with Protégé package", which means renewals are moving customers onto the higher-value AI platform. Independent evidence on Elsevier is older. PLOS ONE (2015) says libraries "have to manage with less as prices increase" and that, because of the oligopoly, they are "more or less helpless". It also found the STM division's profit margin never fell below 30% over the 1991-2013 period it studied. RELX does not disclose list-price increases. Most of the evidence is margin-based. The margins are high and rising, but management credits the gains to keeping cost growth below revenue growth, and the only independent evidence of price increases is from 2015. That supports moderate, not strong, pricing power. |
| Summary | AMD's edge is architectural design IP executed on someone else's fabs. The FY2025 10-K describes a full-stack portfolio — EPYC server CPUs, Instinct AI accelerators, Ryzen client parts where 'AMD was the first company to integrate a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU) on the same SoC as an x86 CPU for AI PCs,' Radeon graphics, Pensando networking and Versal adaptive SoCs — backed by roughly 18,900 patent matters worldwide, and it discloses gigawatt-scale customer commitments (an October 2025 agreement with OpenAI 'to deploy 6 gigawatts of AMD GPUs,' first gigawatt on Instinct MI450). The same filing bounds that moat: Nvidia is 'the discrete GPU market share leader' and 'leverages its market position in data center GPU, financial resources, and proprietary software ecosystem'; Intel 'uses its microprocessor market position to price its products aggressively'; Arm architectures and customers who 'internally develop products to support similar AI workloads' are named as encroaching; and every wafer at 7 nm or below comes from TSMC. Revenue grew 34% in FY2025 with Data Center up 32%, but the filing's own competitive framing places AMD in the challenger seat rather than the entrenched one. | Trane Technologies is the Trane and Thermo King equipment maker - the FY2025 10-K opens by calling it 'a global climate innovator' selling HVAC, transport refrigeration and custom refrigeration through 'our strategic brands, Trane® and Thermo King®' - organised in three regional segments that produced 2025 net revenues of $17,168.8 million (Americas), $2,802.1 million (EMEA) and $1,351.0 million (Asia Pacific), with 'Approximately 25% of our net revenues in 2025 ... derived outside the U.S.' across 'approximately 100 countries' and 'no single external customer that accounted for more than 10% of our consolidated net revenues in 2025, 2024 or 2023'. The filing is candid that the markets are contested and equally candid that its position does not rest on intellectual property: 'engineering, production skills and experience are more responsible for our market position than our patents and/or licenses.' The durable asset it does describe is the installed base and the aftermarket attached to it - an 'extensive global install base' whose monetisation through 'services and rental options' is the stated growth strategy, reached through branch sales offices, dealers and distributors, with service agreements, repair and maintenance, aftermarket and OEM parts and rental all listed among the principal products. The 2025 financials carry that signature: revenues up 7.5% to $21,321.9 million split 3.2 points volume, 3.0 points price, 0.8 points acquisitions and 0.5 points currency; gross margin up 50 basis points to 36.2% 'primarily due to gross productivity and price realization, partially offset by inflation'; and backlog of $7,769.4 million on equipment where 'orders for specialized equipment or specific customer applications are submitted with extended lead times'. The limits are in the same filing. Price contributed 3.8% in the Americas but (0.3)% in EMEA and 0.4% in Asia Pacific; EMEA's segment adjusted EBITDA margin fell 150 basis points to 18.3%; Asia Pacific organic revenue fell 2.5% on 'lower volumes in China'; the Americas' otherwise strong year was 'partially offset by weaker volume in our Residential business'; and the risk factors warn that refrigerant regulation 'could make some of our existing HVAC and refrigeration products non-compliant or obsolete', with the company 'developing and selling our next generation products that utilize lower global warming potential solutions' against $347.6 million of 2025 research and development spending. For the AI build-out specifically, the link exists in the filing but is unsized: 'Data center HVAC systems', 'Data center liquid cooling solutions', 'Data center facility controls' and 'Data center services' appear in the principal products and services table, and those four entries are the only places the phrase occurs anywhere in the 10-K - no revenue, no ranking, no share, and no mention at all in the MD&A discussion of 2025 growth. | RELX sells information-based analytics and decision tools in four business areas. In 2025, per its Annual Report, Risk (LexisNexis Risk Solutions) had revenue of £3,485m and adjusted operating profit of £1,305m; Scientific, Technical & Medical (Elsevier) £2,714m and £1,035m; Legal (LexisNexis Legal & Professional) £1,806m and £415m; and Exhibitions (RX) £1,186m and £410m. The moat rests on content and data that are hard to replicate. A Stanford study describes a historical Westlaw-LexisNexis "virtual duopoly" in legal research. A PLOS ONE study found Reed-Elsevier the largest publisher of natural and medical sciences papers in 2013, and RELX reports that Elsevier articles accounted for "over 18% of global research output and 29% of citations" in its latest comparison. Risk is built on contributory databases such as the C.L.U.E. claims history database, which "collects and reports up to seven years of US personal automobile, property claims and small business information". The products are cheap relative to what customers spend: RELX says they "often account for less than 1% of our customers' total cost base". Group adjusted operating margin rose to 34.8% in 2025 and to 35.5% in the first half of 2026. AI is the main test of the moat. RELX is turning it into upsell: about 90% of Legal new-sales value now comes from the AI-enabled Lexis+ with Protégé platform, and Legal underlying revenue growth reached 10% in H1 2026. On the same call, an analyst cited AI-native legal players Harvey and Legora with combined annual recurring revenue above $400 million, and the CEO said RELX is "not going to be the leader" in the much larger legal workflow software market. RELX names the shift to open access as a principal risk for Elsevier. On the 2026 call, an analyst raised a U.S. OMB proposal to make journal subscription costs and article processing charges unallowable expenses on federal research awards. |
| Chain position | A fabless merchant-silicon designer sitting one layer above the foundries: the FY2025 10-K states AMD relies on TSMC 'for the production of all wafers for microprocessor and GPU products at 7 nanometer (nm) or smaller nodes' and primarily on GLOBALFOUNDRIES above 7 nm, with packaging and test performed by Asia-Pacific ATMP partners — so its cost, supply and cadence are inherited from partners it does not control. | Trane sits on the facility side of the AI build-out rather than in the compute stack. Its FY2025 10-K lists 'Data center HVAC systems', 'Data center liquid cooling solutions', 'Data center facility controls' and 'Data center services' among its principal products and services, alongside 'Thermal energy storage' and 'Smart and AI-enabled services'. Those four entries are the only occurrences of the phrase in the entire filing: there is no data center revenue figure, no ranking, no named competitor and no separate reporting - segment disclosure stops at Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific, and the MD&A attributes the Americas' 7.4% organic growth to 'realization of price increases and higher volumes led by strong demand within our Commercial HVAC business' without naming an end market. | An AI-application-layer user of frontier models: on the H1 2026 call the CEO said RELX takes AI tools "from the sort of frontier lab companies" and runs them inside its own products on verified content. The 2025 Annual Report says LexisNexis will integrate Lexis+ AI capabilities, powered by LexisNexis content, within the Harvey platform. |
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| Long-horizon vote | +0.06 at weight 0.20 · swarm bullish Editorial prior, not backtested. | +0.13 at weight 0.20 · swarm neutral Editorial prior, not backtested. | +0.30 at weight 0.20 · swarm neutral Editorial prior, not backtested. |