Blackstone Sees Earnings Boom Fueling AI, Infrastructure and Fundraising Growth

Blackstone NYSE: BX CFO Michael Chae said the firm sees a constructive backdrop for corporate profits, investment deployment and fundraising, citing accelerating earnings growth, expanding margins and demand for capital across infrastructure, private credit and private wealth markets. Speaking at a financial services conference, Chae described the current environment as a “corporate earnings boom,” pointing to what he said was the fastest S&P earnings growth in five years during the second quarter. He added that 2026 is currently projected to be the strongest year for S&P earnings growth in 25 years, excluding rebound periods following the global financial crisis and COVID-19.

Chae said investment in digital and energy infrastructure is driving the expansion, while remaining below the scale of prior investment cycles as a percentage of gross domestic product. He also said companies are only beginning to capture AI-related productivity gains at scale. Blackstone’s portfolio companies have expanded margins by about 700 basis points on average over the past 40 years, reaching the high-30% range, he said.

Chae said scale and a broad investment platform are increasingly important because major global markets need more capital to support growth. He identified AI-related infrastructure, power and electrification, life sciences, private-market liquidity solutions, secondaries, private investment-grade credit and investments in India and Japan as key opportunity areas. According to Chae, 70% of Blackstone’s largest investments over the past 12 months were in those areas. He said the firm’s ability to invest across strategies and regions differentiates it from more narrowly focused asset managers.

On exits, Chae acknowledged that traditional private-equity realizations have remained constrained and that sponsor-backed transaction volumes have recovered more gradually than the broader mergers-and-acquisitions market. However, he said Blackstone has benefited from its exposure to larger, higher-quality companies that appeal to public-market investors. Blackstone completed nine initial public offerings over the past year, including five since May. About one-third of its corporate private-equity net accrued performance receivable, or NAPR, is publicly traded, Chae said. The firm has six IPOs currently on file globally. Its energy private-equity business doubled its NAPR over the past year to more than $1 billion, driven by investments in power and electrical equipment.

Blackstone raised more than $260 billion of inflows over the past 12 months, representing 24% growth from the pr...