Visa

In fiscal 2025 Visa reported $40.0 billion of net revenue and $24.0 billion of operating income, about a 60% margin, after a $2.6 billion litigation provision. Its network connected nearly 5 billion payment credentials to more than 175 million merchant locations and handled $17 trillion of payments and cash volume. A card is useful only where merchants accept it, and a merchant accepts the cards its customers carry, so a rival must build both sides at once.