MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI) and Microsoft Corp. have formed a strategic alliance to accelerate innovation among the global investment industry. By bringing together the power of Microsoft’s cloud and AI technologies with MSCI’s global reach through its portfolio of investment decision support tools, the companies will unlock new innovations for the industry and enhance MSCI’s client experience among the world’s most sophisticated investors, including asset managers, asset owners, hedge funds and banks.
Initially, the companies will focus on migrating MSCI’s existing products, data, and services onto Azure as its preferred cloud platform in stages, starting with its Index and Analytics solutions followed by its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) products and ratings; Real Estate data and solutions; and MSCI’s risk analytics platform Beon. By modernizing MSCI’s data and analytics services and infrastructure, the companies will be able to deliver new capabilities which will help investors more swiftly and efficiently manage data and understand the drivers of risk and performance.
In addition, MSCI and Microsoft will explore collaboration opportunities to drive climate risk and ESG solutions, leveraging Microsoft’s Azure and Power Platform and MSCI’s ESG and climate solutions capabilities. This future collaboration, in line with both organizations’ commitment to sustainability, is intended to help investors better understand and interpret the business risks and opportunities that climate change brings.
“Investors’ needs to rapidly innovate and adapt as strategies and business models evolve, build and manage big data, and improve operational efficiencies are growing at a critical speed around the world,” said Henry Fernandez, Chairman, and CEO of MSCI. “Our strategic alliance with Microsoft underscores MSCI’s commitment to driving relentless innovation in the technology of our products and services to help investors achieve their desired investment outcomes.”
“Our strategic collaboration with Microsoft is the latest step in our long and established heritage of innovation and we are excited about the long-term potential of this relationship,” added Jigar Thakkar, Chief Technology Officer and Head of Engineering at MSCI. “MSCI is a future-focused business and Azure enables us not just to enhance our capabilities and client solutions of today, but also to provide the platform to accelerate our journey in building world-class technology and tools to solve the investment industry’s challenges of tomorrow.”
“Investors rely on cutting-edge technologies to deliver intelligent insights, manage risk and detect anomalies so they can help customers achieve their investment goals,” said Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President, Cloud +AI, Microsoft. “By harnessing the power of Azure and its AI capabilities, together with MSCI’s expertise and position within the investment ecosystem, we will be able to accelerate new innovations that help investors better optimize their clients’ performance capabilities.”
“This alliance opens exciting frontiers for the global investment community,” said Merrie Williamson, Microsoft VP of Azure Apps and Infrastructure. “The combination of MSCI’s relentless pursuit of innovation with Microsoft’s deep data expertise, expansive partner ecosystem, and go-to-market capabilities forms an alliance with the potential to accelerate the investment industry.”
