Intuitive Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG)

Intuitive Surgical dominates robotic-assisted surgery with its da Vinci system, which has been used in over 14 million procedures worldwide. The company has an installed base of over 9,000 systems globally. Revenue exceeds $7 billion, growing at 15%+ annually. There's essentially no meaningful competitor at scale in soft-tissue robotic surgery — Intuitive owns this market. The new da Vinci 5 platform launched in 2024 with force feedback, a long-awaited feature.

Classic razor-and-blade: sell the da Vinci system ($1.5-2.5 million each), then generate recurring revenue from instruments ($700-3,500 per procedure) and service contracts. Instruments and accessories account for about 57% of revenue, systems about 28%, and services about 15%. Each procedure requires proprietary single-use instruments — that's the recurring revenue moat.

Founded in 1995 in Sunnyvale, California, with technology originally developed for DARPA to enable remote battlefield surgery. The first da Vinci system was FDA-cleared in 2000. The company went public in 2000 at $9 per share — shares have returned over 20,000% since. Gary Guthart has been CEO since 2010, maintaining a remarkably consistent growth trajectory.