ticker: ISRG
step: 01
generated: 2026-05-12
source: quick-research
Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (ISRG) — Business Overview
Business Description
Intuitive Surgical is the global leader in robotic-assisted surgery (RAS), with a dominant installed base of 11,395+ da Vinci surgical systems performing 3M+ surgical procedures annually. The company is mid-rollout of da Vinci 5 (next-gen flagship platform) and rapidly scaling Ion (bronchoscopy/lung biopsy) and SP (single-port surgery). After 20+ years of effectively no soft-tissue robotic competition, Medtronic Hugo and CMR Versius now FDA-cleared in US — first serious competitive threat ever.
Revenue Model
- Instruments & Accessories (~57% of revenue, recurring): Consumables sold per-procedure ("razor-and-blade" model)
- Systems (~26%): da Vinci 5, Xi, X, SP, Ion — large capital purchases by hospitals
- Services (~17%): Annual service contracts on installed base
- ~74% recurring revenue (Instruments + Services) — exceptional for medical device company
Products & Services
Surgical Robots
- da Vinci 5: Next-gen flagship launched 2024; Force Feedback haptics; 232 placements in Q1 2026 alone (up from 147)
- da Vinci Xi/X: Predecessors still in widespread use; being replaced via trade-in upgrade program
- da Vinci SP: Single-port for tight anatomy (urology, head & neck)
- Ion: Robotic bronchoscopy for lung biopsy — 325K+ procedures cumulative; ~1,000 system installed base
- da Vinci 5 Cardiac (FDA cleared 2026): Expansion into cardiac procedures
Instruments & Accessories
- Per-procedure consumables — EndoWrist instruments, energy devices, vision system components
- Sold to hospitals at high gross margin; ~$2,000-3,000 per procedure
- Faces emerging competition from remanufactured / third-party instruments
Services
- Annual service contracts on installed base
- Software updates, AI-enabled feature releases
- Training programs
Customer Base & Go-to-Market
- Hospitals: ~11,395 da Vinci system installed base (US ~6,200; International ~5,200)
- Surgeons: Trained on da Vinci platform (~60,000+ surgeon-users globally)
- Patients: 3.15M procedures performed in 2025
- Procedures by specialty: Urology (prostatectomy), General surgery (cholecystectomy, hernia, bariatric), Gynecology (hysterectomy), Cardiothoracic (newly cleared), Head & Neck, Colorectal
- Geographic mix: ~70% US, ~30% International (US growing faster than International recently due to da Vinci 5 launch)
Competitive Position
Intuitive Surgical has the closest thing to a "moat" in medical devices: (1) 11,395+ installed base = enormous trained surgeon network with switching costs, (2) clinical evidence — 30,000+ peer-reviewed publications since 2000, (3) razor-and-blade economics with ~74% recurring revenue, (4) AI/data scale from millions of procedures recorded. New competitors (Medtronic Hugo, CMR Versius Plus, Stryker Mako for ortho, J&J Ottava) face the chicken-and-egg problem of needing surgical training programs + clinical evidence to challenge da Vinci.
Key Facts
- Founded: 1995 (Frederic Moll, Robert Younge, John Freund)
- Headquarters: Sunnyvale, CA
- Employees: ~13,000
- Exchange: NASDAQ
- Sector / Industry: Health Care / Health Care Equipment
- Market Cap: ~$220B (May 2026)
- CEO: Gary Guthart, Ph.D. (since 2010)
- Dividend: None — focuses capital on R&D + buybacks
- da Vinci installed base growth: +12% YoY (Q1 2026 vs Q1 2025)
- 2026 da Vinci procedure guidance: 13.5-15.5% growth