Is RELX profitable in 2025?

Yes. RELX reported FY2025 revenue of £9,590m (up from £9,434m in 2024), adjusted operating profit of £3,342m at a 34.8% margin, and adjusted EPS of 128.5p, up 10% in constant currency, as of December 31, 2025.

Could AI replace RELX's LexisNexis legal business?

Legal is exposed: Anthropic shipped a Claude legal plug-in on February 2, 2026, triggering a 13-16% RELX share drop. But Legal is only 10-13% of RELX's EBIT (vs 45% at Thomson Reuters), and RELX's own Protégé AI reached US general availability February 24, 2026.

RELX is a publicly traded FTSE 100 company with no controlling parent, listed on the London, Amsterdam and New York exchanges. Its market capitalization was cited at roughly £49bn ($66bn) as of April 30, 2026.

Is RELX a safe company to join right now?

Headcount grew to 37,600 FTE employees at year-end 2025, up from 36,400 in 2024 (about 3.3%), with no reported layoffs. RELX reaffirmed full-year guidance in an April 2026 trading update despite an AI-driven stock selloff.

Who is RELX's biggest competitor?

In legal research, Thomson Reuters and Wolters Kluwer are the closest incumbent rivals; both had their moats cut to Narrow by Morningstar on March 5, 2026. Newer AI-native threats include Anthropic's Claude legal plug-in (Feb 2026), Harvey AI ($8bn valuation, Dec 2025), and Legora ($1.8bn Series C).

Did RELX's stock crash because of AI competition?

Yes. RELX shares fell roughly 13-16% over two days starting February 3, 2026, after Anthropic launched a Claude legal plug-in, part of a broader $285-300bn software-sector selloff. Shares partly recovered after RELX's February 12, 2026 results beat expectations.

Financial data and information services · United Kingdom

RELX

relx.com ↗

UK giant selling legal, scientific, and risk data tools via LexisNexis and Elsevier.

Defensible for now

Assessed 22 July 2026 · Evidence as of 22 July 2026

Real protection, with named pressure against it.

On the recordSince 22 July 2026 · Checkable from around July 23 2026 · Every call on the record Checkpoint: H1 2026 results, showing whether Legal segment growth holds positive

The call

Most of RELX's profit sits in data that AI cannot copy or license, while its legal software faces real but so far uncounted pressure from Claude, Harvey, and Legora.

RELX is a company that sells information, data, and software tools to lawyers, scientists, regulators, and businesses. Most of its profit comes from hard-to-replace services like regulatory compliance data and scientific journal subscriptions, which would be expensive and risky to replace with AI tools. However, its legal software business is now competing directly with new AI tools like Claude and Harvey that can do legal research and document work faster and cheaper. The key question is whether these AI tools will stay limited to the legal side of the business or eventually threaten the other, more profitable parts that RELX relies on.

Why

AI pressure: Anthropic's Claude legal plug-in, Harvey AI, Legora. AI legal tools are live and funded heavily, but LexisNexis Legal growth stayed positive so far, no proven client exodus yet. Could AI do the core job? Only partly.

Bigger players: None apparent. No major tech giant has launched a direct rival to Risk Solutions or Elsevier's scientific publishing pipeline. Could a giant copy it? No, they are blocked.

What protects it. Regulatory-locked data (fraud, identity, underwriting) and journal pipelines that AI models cannot legally or practically replicate.

What would change this call

RELX Legal segment underlying growth rate in H1 2026 results (due ~July 23, 2026). Whether Anthropic/Harvey/Legora are taking real share or just pressuring the stock.
Any major law firm publicly announcing a switch to Claude or Harvey as primary legal research stack. Would show direct customer defection from LexisNexis/Westlaw-style tools.
Outcome of Wanna v. RELX Group FCRA/DPPA/RICO litigation and the FULCRUMSEC breach investigation. Whether legal or regulatory setbacks weaken trust in the Risk Solutions data moat.

Key numbers

FY2025 revenue £9,590m, up 7% underlying (2025-12-31)
Risk Solutions revenue £3,485m, up 9% (2025-12-31)
88% of new US auto insurance policies used RELX data (2024-12-31)

Named risks

AI-native legal tools (Anthropic, Harvey, Legora) could erode Legal segment growth post-Protégé GA. Severity: medium
Stock volatility from AI headlines caused a 13-16% two-day share drop in Feb 2026. Severity: medium
LexisNexis data breach (2025, alleged AWS misconfiguration) under class-action investigation as of March 2026. Severity: medium
Ongoing FCRA/DPPA/RICO litigation over LexisNexis-linked data broker practices (Wanna v. RELX). Severity: low

Rivals, as read in July 2026

Rival	Direction	Evidence
Anthropic	gaining on	Claude legal plug-in shipped Feb 2, 2026, triggered 13-16% RELX share drop
Harvey AI	gaining on	Reached $8bn valuation by Dec 2025 targeting contract review and legal workflows
Legora	gaining on	Raised Series C at $1.8bn valuation, reported Feb 5, 2026
Thomson Reuters	contesting	Both hit by AI selloff Feb 2026; TRI has 45% Legal EBIT exposure vs RELX 10-13%
Wolters Kluwer	contesting	Moat cut to Narrow by Morningstar on Mar 5, 2026 amid AI disruption fears

Questions people ask

Is RELX profitable in 2025?: Yes. RELX reported FY2025 revenue of £9,590m (up from £9,434m in 2024), adjusted operating profit of £3,342m at a 34.8% margin, and adjusted EPS of 128.5p, up 10% in constant currency, as of December 31, 2025.
Could AI replace RELX's LexisNexis legal business?: Legal is exposed: Anthropic shipped a Claude legal plug-in on February 2, 2026, triggering a 13-16% RELX share drop. But Legal is only 10-13% of RELX's EBIT (vs 45% at Thomson Reuters), and RELX's own Protégé AI reached US general availability February 24, 2026.
Who owns RELX?: RELX is a publicly traded FTSE 100 company with no controlling parent, listed on the London, Amsterdam and New York exchanges. Its market capitalization was cited at roughly £49bn ($66bn) as of April 30, 2026.
Is RELX a safe company to join right now?: Headcount grew to 37,600 FTE employees at year-end 2025, up from 36,400 in 2024 (about 3.3%), with no reported layoffs. RELX reaffirmed full-year guidance in an April 2026 trading update despite an AI-driven stock selloff.
Who is RELX's biggest competitor?: In legal research, Thomson Reuters and Wolters Kluwer are the closest incumbent rivals; both had their moats cut to Narrow by Morningstar on March 5, 2026. Newer AI-native threats include Anthropic's Claude legal plug-in (Feb 2026), Harvey AI ($8bn valuation, Dec 2025), and Legora ($1.8bn Series C).
Did RELX's stock crash because of AI competition?: Yes. RELX shares fell roughly 13-16% over two days starting February 3, 2026, after Anthropic launched a Claude legal plug-in, part of a broader $285-300bn software-sector selloff. Shares partly recovered after RELX's February 12, 2026 results beat expectations.

Timeline

2026-04-23RELX's LexisNexis Risk Solutions announces strategic partnership with Cytora for AI underwriting
2026-04-16RELX acquires Agenium, a life-insurance workflow technology company
2026-03-05Morningstar cuts Thomson Reuters and Wolters Kluwer moats to Narrow, raises RELX uncertainty to Medium
2026-02-24Lexis+ with Protégé reaches US general availability, global rollout begins
2026-02-12RELX reports FY2025 results: revenue £9,590m, adjusted operating profit £3,342m
2026-02-03RELX shares fall 13-16% after Anthropic's Claude legal plug-in launch
2026-02-02Anthropic launches Claude legal plug-in targeting contract review and compliance
2025-11-13LexisNexis launches Protégé agentic legal AI assistant in Canada and France
2024-07-01Lexis+ AI launches in France, part of broader multi-country rollout
2024-01-16Elsevier's Scopus AI moves from alpha to full commercial launch

Revision history

22 July 2026

First assessed. Defensible for now. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.

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Sources

Information-based analytics and decision tools (2025 Results) (2026-07-13)
RELX
Fast Facts July 2025
The Oligopoly Publishers (2026-07-13)
Information-based analytics and decision tools (Trading Update) (2026-07-09)
RELX's Agenium Integration... (2026-04-16)
Cytora, LexisNexis link U.S. underwriting data (2026-04-23)
RELX PLC Number of Employees (2026-06-24)
Anthropic's Legal AI Triggers $285B Software Market Selloff (2026-02-05)
Downgrading Wolters Kluwer and Thomson Reuters Moats... (2026-03-05)
Thomson Reuters, RELX, and Wolters Stocks Crushed After Anthropic Debuts Claude Legal Plug-In (2026-02-03)
LexisNexis lance Lexis+ AI en France (2024-07-01)