MSCI announces strategic alliance with Microsoft
to accelerate innovation in the global investment
industry
NEW YORK and REDMOND, WA – July 23, 2020 – MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI) and Microsoft Corp. haveformed a strategic alliance to accelerate innovation among the global investment industry. By bringing
together the power of Microsoft’s cloud and AI technologies with MSCI’s global reach through its
portfolio of investment decision support tools, the companies will unlock new innovations for theindustry and enhance MSCI’s client experience among the world’s most sophisticated investors,including asset managers, asset owners, hedge funds and banks.
Initially, the companies will focus on migrating MSCI’s existing products, data and services onto Azure
as its preferred cloud platform in stages, starting with its Index and Analytics solutions followed by its
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) products and ratings; Real Estate data and solutions; andMSCI’s risk analytics platform Beon. By modernizing MSCI’s data and analytics services andinfrastructure, the companies will be able to deliver new capabilities which will help investors more
swiftly and efficiently manage data and understand the drivers of risk and performance.
In addition, MSCI and Microsoft will explore collaboration opportunities to drive climate risk and ESG
solutions, leveraging Microsoft’s Azure and Power Platform and MSCI’s ESG and climate solutions
capabilities. This future collaboration, in line with both organizations’ commitment to sustainability, isintended to help investors better understand and interpret the business risks and opportunities thatclimate change brings.
“Investors’ needs to rapidly innovate and adapt as strategies and business models evolve, build andmanage big data, and improve operational efficiencies are growing at a critical speed around the world,”
said Henry Fernandez, Chairman and CEO of MSCI. “Our strategic alliance with Microsoft underscores
MSCI’s commitment to driving relentless innovation in the technology of our products and services tohelp investors achieve their desired investment outcomes.”“Our strategic collaboration with Microsoft is the latest step in our long and established heritage ofinnovation and we are excited about the long-term potential of this relationship,” added Jigar Thakkar,
Chief Technology Officer and Head of Engineering at MSCI. “MSCI is a future-focused business andAzure enables us not just to enhance our capabilities and client solutions of today, but also provide theplatform to accelerate our journey in building world-class technology and tools to solve the investment
industry’s challenges of tomorrow.”“Investors rely on cutting-edge technologies to deliver intelligent insights, manage risk and detect
anomalies so they can help customers achieve their investment goals,” said Scott Guthrie, Executive
Vice President, Cloud +AI, Microsoft. “By harnessing the power of Azure and its AI capabilities, together
with MSCI’s expertise and position within the investment ecosystem, we will be able to accelerate new
innovations that help investors better optimize their clients’ performance capabilities.”“This alliance opens exciting frontiers for the global investment community,” said Merrie Williamson,
Microsoft VP of Azure Apps and Infrastructure. “The combination of MSCI’s relentless pursuit ofinnovation with Microsoft’s deep data expertise, expansive partner ecosystem, and go-to-market
capabilities forms an alliance with the potential to accelerate the investment industry.”About MSCIMSCI is a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community.
With over 45 years of expertise in research, data and technology, we power better investment decisions byenabling clients to understand and analyze key drivers of risk and return and confidently build more effective
portfolios. We create industry-leading research-enhanced solutions that clients use to gain insight into andimprove transparency across the investment process. To learn more, please visit www.msci.com.

About MicrosoftMicrosoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and anintelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

For more information, press only:
Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, rrt@we-worldwide.com

Investor Inquiries
investor.relations@msci.com
Salli Schwartz+1 212 804 5306

Media Inquiries
PR@msci.com
Sam Wang+1 212 804 5244

Melanie Blanco+1 212 981 1049

Rachel Lai+852 2844 9315

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Americas Client Service+1 888 588 4567 (toll free)

Asia Pacific Client Service+ 852 2844 9333

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking
statements relate to future events or to future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actualresults, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements
expressed or implied by these statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as “may,” “could,” “expect,”“intend,” “plan,” “seek,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential” or “continue,” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. You
should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are, in somecases, beyond MSCI’s control and that could materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements.
Other factors that could materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements can be found in MSCI’s Annual Report on Form 10-K forthe fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on February 18, 2020 and in quarterly reports on Form 10-Q
and current reports on Form 8-K filed or furnished with the SEC. If any of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if MSCI’s underlying assumptions prove to beincorrect, actual results may vary significantly from what MSCI projected. Any forward-looking statement in this press release reflects MSCI’s current views withrespect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to MSCI’s operations, results of operations, growthstrategy and liquidity. MSCI assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, whether as a result of new
information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.