Is McGraw Hill profitable in 2026?

Yes. McGraw Hill, Inc. reported positive net income and revenue exceeding guidance for fiscal year 2026 (ended March 31, 2026), alongside $646 million in gross debt reduction during the year, per results reported June 11, 2026.

Could AI replace McGraw Hill's textbooks and tutoring products?

Partly. Free tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude are commoditizing student-facing tutoring and essay feedback, but McGraw Hill's 99% K-12 district penetration and 82% higher-ed adoption as of July 2025 give it procurement moats AI startups cannot easily bypass.

Who owns McGraw Hill?

Platinum Equity acquired McGraw Hill from Apollo Global Management for about $4.5 billion in August 2021 and remains a large shareholder after McGraw Hill, Inc. (ticker MH) IPO'd on NYSE in July 2025 at $17 per share.

Is McGraw Hill stock down since its IPO?

Yes. McGraw Hill IPO'd at $17 per share on July 24, 2025, valuing it near $3.25 billion; by July 22, 2026 shares traded around $9-12 with market cap near $1.8 billion, a roughly 44% decline over the trailing year.

Is McGraw Hill growing revenue?

Growth has stalled. FY2025 revenue rose 7.2% to about $2.10 billion, but FY2026 (ended March 2026) grew only about 0.1% to roughly $2.10-2.103 billion despite an 18-month AI product rollout, per macrotrends data from March 2026.

Who is McGraw Hill's biggest competitor?

Pearson PLC, the largest global education publisher at roughly $4.5 billion revenue, is often cited as McGraw Hill's top rival, alongside Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Cengage Group, which holds an estimated 22-25% U.S. higher-ed materials share as of FY2024/2025.

Education companies · United States

McGraw Hill Education

mheducation.com ↗

Publisher of K-12 and college textbooks, now selling digital courseware and tutoring tools.

Protection under test

Assessed 22 July 2026 · Evidence as of 22 July 2026

Something worth protecting exists and is being tested right now.

On the recordSince 22 July 2026 · Checkable from early 2027 · Every call on the record Checkpoint: FY2027 earnings report showing whether AI products (Writing Assistant, Sharpen, ALEKS) lift revenue growth

The call

Schools keep renewing McGraw Hill contracts, but growth has stalled even as free AI tools take over the tutoring and homework help it used to sell.

McGraw Hill makes textbooks, practice problems, and tutoring software that schools and colleges buy and use for years. It is hard to replace because schools have used its materials for decades and switching to something else takes time and money. However, free AI tools like ChatGPT now do homework help and tutoring for students without any cost, which means McGraw Hill's main advantages are under pressure. The key question is whether the new AI features McGraw Hill built into its products over the last year and a half will start bringing in more money by 2028, or whether students will keep using free tools instead.

Why

AI pressure: OpenAI/ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude. Free chatbots now do homework help and essay feedback that used to require a paid McGraw Hill add-on. Could AI do the core job? Only partly.

Bigger players: None apparent. No large tech company has moved to displace McGraw Hill's district and campus contracts directly. Could a giant copy it? No, they are blocked.

What protects it. Textbooks and courseware are already wired into 99% of US school districts and 82% of colleges through multi-year contracts.

What would change this call

FY2027 earnings show digital revenue growth above 5% versus flat FY2026. Would indicate AI-embedded products (ALEKS, Sharpen, Writing Assistant) are driving real re-acceleration.
District renewal rates reported at or above 90% in FY2027 filings. Would show districts still paying for premium tiers instead of substituting free AI tools.
Platinum Equity announces a dividend recapitalization or refinancing of McGraw Hill. Would signal cash extraction that could limit reinvestment in the AI product transition.

Key numbers

Revenue grew only 0.1% in FY2026 to $2.1B (2026-03-30)
Stock down 44% since $17 IPO price (2026-07-22)
99% of US K-12 districts use its products (2025-07-24)

Named risks

Flat FY2026 revenue growth (+0.1%) despite 18 months of AI product launches signals commoditization risk. Severity: high
Stock down ~44% from IPO price with multiple bank price-target cuts in June-July 2026. Severity: high
Florida lawsuit alleging overpriced textbooks sold to schools, filed August 2025. Severity: medium
Free general-purpose AI tools may substitute for licensed tutoring/content products at the student level. Severity: high
Platinum Equity retains large ownership stake post-IPO, raising potential conflict with public shareholders. Severity: medium

Rivals, as read in July 2026

Rival	Direction	Evidence
Pearson PLC	contesting	Pearson ~$4.5B revenue and ~30% global higher-ed digital courseware share cited in 2026-04-17 analysis
Cengage Group	contesting	Cengage holds ~22-25% U.S. higher-ed materials share via Cengage Unlimited subscriptions, 2026-03-20 estimate
Savvas Learning Company	contesting	Co-defendant with McGraw Hill in Florida textbook-overpricing lawsuit filed 2025-08-19
OpenAI ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude	losing to	Free general-purpose AI commoditizing student tutoring/essay-feedback workflows as of 2025-2026
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt	contesting	Big-three peer competing in K-12 core curriculum and elementary math assessment
Meta (Llama AI training)	contesting	McGraw Hill sued Meta May 2026 over alleged unauthorized use of its textbooks to train Llama

Questions people ask

Is McGraw Hill profitable in 2026?: Yes. McGraw Hill, Inc. reported positive net income and revenue exceeding guidance for fiscal year 2026 (ended March 31, 2026), alongside $646 million in gross debt reduction during the year, per results reported June 11, 2026.
Could AI replace McGraw Hill's textbooks and tutoring products?: Partly. Free tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude are commoditizing student-facing tutoring and essay feedback, but McGraw Hill's 99% K-12 district penetration and 82% higher-ed adoption as of July 2025 give it procurement moats AI startups cannot easily bypass.
Who owns McGraw Hill?: Platinum Equity acquired McGraw Hill from Apollo Global Management for about $4.5 billion in August 2021 and remains a large shareholder after McGraw Hill, Inc. (ticker MH) IPO'd on NYSE in July 2025 at $17 per share.
Is McGraw Hill stock down since its IPO?: Yes. McGraw Hill IPO'd at $17 per share on July 24, 2025, valuing it near $3.25 billion; by July 22, 2026 shares traded around $9-12 with market cap near $1.8 billion, a roughly 44% decline over the trailing year.
Is McGraw Hill growing revenue?: Growth has stalled. FY2025 revenue rose 7.2% to about $2.10 billion, but FY2026 (ended March 2026) grew only about 0.1% to roughly $2.10-2.103 billion despite an 18-month AI product rollout, per macrotrends data from March 2026.
Who is McGraw Hill's biggest competitor?: Pearson PLC, the largest global education publisher at roughly $4.5 billion revenue, is often cited as McGraw Hill's top rival, alongside Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Cengage Group, which holds an estimated 22-25% U.S. higher-ed materials share as of FY2024/2025.

Timeline

2026-06-29Expanded ALEKS with Adventure (Grades 4-5) and Calculus II; Calculus III planned for 2027-28
2026-06-11FY2026 results: revenue exceeded guidance, positive net income, $646M gross debt reduction
2026-05-05Joined Elsevier, Cengage, Hachette, Macmillan in suing Meta over alleged pirated-book AI training
2026-01-06CEO succession: Simon Allen retires, Philip Moyer (ex-Vimeo, ex-Google Cloud AI) named CEO
2025-11-17Launched Teacher Assistant and expanded Writing Assistant nationwide for K-12
2025-10-22Introduced Clinical Reasoning AI tool and expanded AI Reader into First Aid Forward
2025-09-30Launched Sharpen Advantage, AI-powered enterprise study app for higher-ed
2025-07-24IPO on NYSE at $17/share, raising ~$414.6 million, valuing company at ~$3.25 billion
2025-03-24Acquired Essaypop, a K-12 writing tool, fourth acquisition since 2021 Platinum takeover
2021-08-02Platinum Equity completed acquisition of McGraw Hill from Apollo for ~$4.5 billion

Revision history

22 July 2026

First assessed. Protection under test. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.

In the same band

Bright Scholar Education China Distance Education Holdings Scaler