ICE vs BX Comparison

Intercontinental Exchange is a vertically integrated operator of financial exchanges and provides ancillary data products. Though the company is probably best known for its ownership of the New York Stock Exchange, which it acquired in 2013, ICE operates a large derivatives exchange, too. The company's largest commodity futures product is the ICE Brent crude futures contract. In addition to the exchanges business, which is about 54% of net revenue, Intercontinental Exchange has used a series of acquisitions to create its mortgage technology business (22% of net revenue) and fixed-income and data-services segment (24% of net revenue).

Blackstone is the world's largest alternative-asset manager with $1.304 trillion in total assets under management, including $937.6 billion in fee-earning assets under management, at the end of March 2026. The company operates with scale in each of its major product lines: private equity (27% of fee-earning AUM and 34% of base management fees), real estate/real assets (30% and 33%), credit and insurance (33% and 26%), and other alternatives (10% and 7%). While the firm primarily serves institutional investors (84% of AUM), it also caters to clients in the high-net-worth channel (16%). Blackstone operates through 25 offices in the Americas (8), Europe and the Middle East (9), and the Asia-Pacific region (8).