Major ClientsWide moat

GE Aerospace (GE) — moat facet

No customer above ten per cent, and two companies decide which engines are allowed to exist.

GE Aerospace's 10-K contains no customer concentration table. On $45,855 million of revenue across approximately 120 countries1, no single buyer reaches the threshold that would require disclosure.

Revenue from the largest single customer~67%CoreWeave22%Nvidia20.4%Kioxianone above 10%GE AerospaceOn $45,855m of revenue across approximately 120 countries and a base of 80,000 engines.
No customer above ten per cent — and two companies decide which engines are allowed to exist.

That is genuine diversification and it is also slightly misleading, because the customers who matter most are not the ones who pay. GE Aerospace describes its commercial customers as primarily airframers and airlines, including both Boeing and Airbus, and third-party maintenance shops2. The airlines pay for the engines and the overhauls. The airframers decide, once per aircraft programme, which engines may be bought at all — and on some Boeing models GE Aerospace is the sole source3.

So there are four kinds of counterparty, and only one of them is a customer in the ordinary sense.

There is the airframer, who makes a decision every decade that fixes thirty years of aftermarket. There is the airline, who buys the engine, signs a service agreement of ten to twenty-five years4 and then cannot leave. There is the government, which in Defense & Systems supplies most of the revenue through a budget5 and also funds a large part of the research — $1,409 million of the $2,989 million spent in 2025 was customer and partner funded, primarily by the United States Government6. And there are the third-party shops, who are simultaneously competitors for the overhaul and customers for the parts.

The geography has shifted sharply and almost silently. Non-United States revenue was fifty-two per cent of the total in 2023, fifty-five per cent in 2024 and sixty per cent in 2025, with Asia alone going from $5,734 million to $10,819 million in two years7.

The rating is wide. An absence of concentration on a base of 80,000 engines8 is about as safe a revenue position as exists in industrial manufacturing.

The evidence here is an absence: no customer above ten per cent, in any year, in a company whose single largest commercial relationship is with a joint venture it half owns.

Moat trajectory: Holding steady

No customer has reached ten per cent in any year and none is likely to, on a base of 80,000 engines and customers in approximately 120 countries. The structure of who decides and who pays is unchanged and is not the kind of thing that changes.

The number that tests this moat
Reported
Services orders growth against equipment orders growth, latest quarter
+22% against +7%

Airframers choose the engine; airlines pay for decades of servicing. Services orders growing three times faster than equipment shows where the customer relationship earns.

Source: GE Aerospace Q2 2026 earnings release ↗
Dig deeper
DIG DEEPER 01
No Customer Above Ten Per Cent, and Two That Decide Everything
Perfect revenue diversification on 80,000 engines, and a concentration of gatekeepers rather than of payers.
DIG DEEPER 02
The Airframer Chooses, the Airline Pays
The party that selects the engine and the party that pays for it are different people, twenty-five years apart.
DIG DEEPER 03
The Government on Both Sides of the R&D Line
Nearly half the research is paid for by a counterparty that is also the customer, the regulator and the export authority.
DIG DEEPER 04
Sixty Per Cent of the Revenue Is Not American
Asia nearly doubled in two years and is now larger than Europe, and almost nobody remarked on it.
References
  1. ReportedOn $45,855 million of revenue across approximately 120 countries, no single buyer reaches the threshold that would require disclosure.
    GE Aerospace Form 10-K, FY2025 - Item 1 general and Item 2 Properties — the installed base of approximately 50,000 commercial and 30,000 military engines and the statement that it supports an aftermarket representing approximately 70% of revenue, the FLIGHT DECK operating model, customers in approximately 120 countries, the facility count, human capital and employee numbers, the intellectual property discussion, the research and development table splitting company-funded from customer- and partner-funded spending, and the engine testing milestones. — FY2025 · publ. January 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedGE Aerospace describes its commercial customers as primarily airframers and airlines, including both Boeing and Airbus, and third-party maintenance shops.
    GE Aerospace Form 10-K, FY2025 - Item 1 Business — segment descriptions for Commercial Engines & Services and Defense & Propulsion Technologies, the CFM International 50-50 non-consolidated joint venture with Safran Aircraft Engines, the commercial engine platforms (LEAP, CFM56, GEnx, GE9X, CF6, GE90), the defence platforms (F110, F404, F414, T408, T700, T901, LM2500), the Propulsion & Additive Technologies brands, the CFM RISE programme, the customer description including airframers and sole-source positions, and the segment revenue and services shares. — FY2025 · publ. January 2026 · source ↗
  3. ReportedThe airframers decide, once per aircraft programme, which engines may be bought at all — and on some Boeing models GE Aerospace is the sole source.
    GE Aerospace Form 10-K, FY2025 - Item 1 Business — segment descriptions for Commercial Engines & Services and Defense & Propulsion Technologies, the CFM International 50-50 non-consolidated joint venture with Safran Aircraft Engines, the commercial engine platforms (LEAP, CFM56, GEnx, GE9X, CF6, GE90), the defence platforms (F110, F404, F414, T408, T700, T901, LM2500), the Propulsion & Additive Technologies brands, the CFM RISE programme, the customer description including airframers and sole-source positions, and the segment revenue and services shares. — FY2025 · publ. January 2026 · source ↗
  4. ReportedThere is the airline, who buys the engine, signs a service agreement of ten to twenty-five years and then cannot leave.
    GE Aerospace Form 10-K, FY2025 - Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm — the critical audit matter on revenue recognition for certain Aerospace long-term service agreements, which notes that the agreements generally range from 10 to 25 years, that revenue is recognised on the percentage-of-completion method, and that the key assumptions requiring significant management judgement are customer utilisation, the expected timing and extent of future overhaul services, future costs of materials and labour, and forward-looking information. — FY2025 · publ. January 2026 · source ↗
  5. ReportedThere is the government, which in Defense & Systems supplies most of the revenue through a budget and also funds a large part of the research — $1,409 million of the $2,989 million spent in 2025 was customer and partner funded, primarily by the United States Government.
    GE Aerospace Form 10-K, FY2025 - Segment Operations — Defense & Propulsion Technologies: segment revenue split between Defense & Systems and Propulsion & Additive Technologies, equipment and services revenue, segment profit and margin, defence engine unit deliveries, the DPT remaining performance obligation, the US Air Force F110-GE-129 Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract valued up to $5 billion, the Hindustan Aeronautics F404-GE-IN20 order valued at $1.6 billion, and the government-funding discussion. — FY2025 · publ. January 2026 · source ↗
  6. ReportedThere is the government, which in Defense & Systems supplies most of the revenue through a budget and also funds a large part of the research — $1,409 million of the $2,989 million spent in 2025 was customer and partner funded, primarily by the United States Government.
    GE Aerospace Form 10-K, FY2025 - Item 1 general and Item 2 Properties — the installed base of approximately 50,000 commercial and 30,000 military engines and the statement that it supports an aftermarket representing approximately 70% of revenue, the FLIGHT DECK operating model, customers in approximately 120 countries, the facility count, human capital and employee numbers, the intellectual property discussion, the research and development table splitting company-funded from customer- and partner-funded spending, and the engine testing milestones. — FY2025 · publ. January 2026 · source ↗
  7. ReportedNon-United States revenue was fifty-two per cent of the total in 2023, fifty-five per cent in 2024 and sixty per cent in 2025, with Asia alone going from $5,734 million to $10,819 million in two years.
    GE Aerospace Form 10-K, FY2025 - notes to the consolidated financial statements — the segment note including segment expenses, segment profit and other segment income; contract assets, contract liabilities and long-term service agreement balances; the remaining performance obligation note with its expected recognition schedule; goodwill and intangible assets; and the geographic revenue table. — FY2025 · publ. January 2026 · source ↗
  8. ReportedAn absence of concentration on a base of 80,000 engines is about as safe a revenue position as exists in industrial manufacturing.
    GE Aerospace Form 10-K, FY2025 - Item 1 general and Item 2 Properties — the installed base of approximately 50,000 commercial and 30,000 military engines and the statement that it supports an aftermarket representing approximately 70% of revenue, the FLIGHT DECK operating model, customers in approximately 120 countries, the facility count, human capital and employee numbers, the intellectual property discussion, the research and development table splitting company-funded from customer- and partner-funded spending, and the engine testing milestones. — FY2025 · publ. January 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 23, 2026