Eighty-Four PercentWide moat

Intuitive publishes recurring revenue as a defined measure, which is itself a signal about how management wants the business understood. In 2025 it was $8,465.3 million against total revenue of $10,064.7 million — 84%, after 84% in 2024 and 83% in 2023¹.

The composition: instruments and accessories $6,018.9 million, service $1,572.1 million, operating lease revenue $874.3 million. Against that, systems revenue recognised upfront was $2,473.7 million².

The practical consequence is that a bad capital year is not a bad year. Hospital capital budgets are set annually, are the first thing cut under financial pressure, and are the reason most medical-device revenue is lumpy. Intuitive's exposure to that cycle is confined to a sixth of its revenue, and even that sixth is shrinking in importance as leasing grows — an operating lease converts a capital decision into an operating one, which is precisely why hospitals take them.

The comparison worth making is with the rest of the sector. A conventional device company sells a machine and then sells whatever consumables the hospital chooses to buy from whoever makes them. Intuitive's instruments are proprietary, wristed, chip-controlled and specific to its own arms; there is no aftermarket to lose share to.

Grade it on the recurring share holding at 84% while procedures grow. If it climbs toward 90% because systems revenue is falling, the installed base has stopped expanding and the annuity has stopped compounding.