⚠ No Profit Figure for Either HalfModerate threat

Mastercard (MA) — threat to the moat

Mastercard sells services worth $13 billion a year and does not tell investors what they earn.

Mastercard has concluded it has one reportable operating segment, Payment Solutions1. That is defensible accounting, and it leaves the most important question about the growth engine unanswerable from the filings: how profitable are the services?

Mastercard employees (thousands)13.4201721.0202029.9202235.3202439.82025Mastercard Forms 10-K FY2017-FY2025
Headcount nearly tripled in eight years.

Services depend on people in a way the network does not. Mastercard employed approximately 39,800 people at the end of 20252, against about 13,400 in 20173, and the total cost of the workforce was $7.3 billion4. Much of that growth is consultants, data scientists and security staff, the inputs of a services business.

The company margin has risen anyway, to 57.6% in 20255. But a network growing 12% with almost no marginal cost can hide a services business earning much less.

The single-segment presentation is a choice the company defends as reflecting how it manages the business: payment network services and value-added services can be sold together or separately, and contracts with multiple performance obligations are allocated by relative standalone selling price6. That makes a segment split genuinely difficult. It also means an investor valuing the services business as a high-growth franchise is estimating its profitability rather than reading it. Operating expenses were $13,894 million in 20257, with no split between the two lines.

Operating margin is the only proxy. If services keep rising as a share and the margin starts to fall, the growth engine will turn out to be a lower-quality business than the network it is diluting.

References
  1. ReportedMastercard has concluded it has one reportable operating segment, Payment Solutions.
    Mastercard Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 - Item 1 business: the network, competition, tokenization, account-based payments and human capital. — FY2025 · publ. 11 February 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedMastercard employed approximately 39,800 people at the end of 2025, against about 13,400 in 2017, and the total cost of the workforce was $7.3 billion.
    Mastercard Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 - Item 1 business: the network, competition, tokenization, account-based payments and human capital. — FY2025 · publ. 11 February 2026 · source ↗
  3. ReportedMastercard employed approximately 39,800 people at the end of 2025, against about 13,400 in 2017, and the total cost of the workforce was $7.3 billion.
    Mastercard Form 10-K for fiscal 2017 - gross revenue and rebates for 2015-2017, net income and EPS, headcount and the 2017 tax charge. — FY2017 · publ. February 2018 · source ↗
  4. ReportedMastercard employed approximately 39,800 people at the end of 2025, against about 13,400 in 2017, and the total cost of the workforce was $7.3 billion.
    Mastercard Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 - Item 1 business: the network, competition, tokenization, account-based payments and human capital. — FY2025 · publ. 11 February 2026 · source ↗
  5. ReportedThe company margin has risen anyway, to 57.6% in 2025.
    Mastercard Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 - Item 7 MD&A: net revenue by category, key metrics, rebates, geography and the five largest customers. — FY2025 · publ. 11 February 2026 · source ↗
  6. ReportedThe single-segment presentation is a choice the company defends as reflecting how it manages the business: payment network services and value-added services can be sold together or separately, and contracts with multiple performance obligations are allocated by relative standalone selling price.
    Mastercard Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 - Item 7 MD&A: value-added services and solutions. — FY2025 · publ. 11 February 2026 · source ↗
  7. ReportedOperating expenses were $13,894 million in 2025, with no split between the two lines.
    Mastercard Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 - Item 7 MD&A: net revenue by category, key metrics, rebates, geography and the five largest customers. — FY2025 · publ. 11 February 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 25, 2026