Apollo Global Management Sees AI, Private Credit and Retirement Driving Growth

Apollo expects growth from AI infrastructure, private credit and retirement products. CEO Marc Rowan cited a resilient U.S. economy, industrial investment and demand for complex, long-duration financing as key supports. Apollo is expanding access to private-market investments by offering credit products with daily net asset values and public-market-like features; it has traded more than $30 billion of these products this year and expects $50 billion by year-end. Origination is Apollo’s main growth constraint. The firm is targeting financing opportunities in energy, chips, data centers, infrastructure and manufacturing, while expanding European private credit and retirement operations and establishing Austin as a second headquarters.

Marc Rowan, chairman, co-founder and CEO of Apollo Global Management NYSE: APO, said the firm sees a favorable near-term U.S. economic backdrop, continued demand for private credit and significant opportunities tied to industrial investment, AI infrastructure and retirement products. Speaking at BofA’s 31st Annual European Financial Services Conference, Rowan said U.S. companies have been resilient, earnings are rising and capital markets remain open. He cited employment, capital-expenditure spending and accommodative government policy as factors supporting the economy.

“Valuation aside, I think it will be difficult to cause a U.S. recession over the near term,” Rowan said, adding that credit generally performs well when the economy remains healthy.

Rowan said private-market firms are being supported by demand for excess returns per unit of risk, investor diversification needs and what he described as a global industrial renaissance. He said Apollo is seeking to serve a wider group of investors beyond institutional alternatives allocations, including individuals, insurers, traditional asset managers, retirement plans and institutional debt and equity portfolios.

According to Rowan, those customers are not naturally suited to traditional closed-end fund structures. Apollo is therefore working to make its credit products operate more like public-market securities, with daily net asset values, identifiers such as CUSIPs or ICE IDs, trading and eventually regular-way settlement. He said Apollo had traded more than $30 billion of such products year to date and expected that figure to reach $50 billion by year-end. The firm expected to offer daily NAV across its full credit business by Sept. 30, after implementing it across its investment-grade suite as of June 30.

Rowan identified origination, rather than capital raising, as the key bottleneck for the industry. He said Apollo’s origination capabilities grew from the company’s effort to source investment-grade assets for its retirement business, Athene, without depending on public investment-grade markets. He pointed to financing demand across energy, power transmission, infrastructure, manufacturing, defense, AI and data.

Rowan said corporations increasingly use banks for short-term financing and public markets for straightforward debt, but turn to private markets for more complex or longer-duration capital needs. Rowan said Apollo primarily provides concentrated capital to investment-grade companies. He said the firm generally seeks secured, asset-level structures rather than unsecured holding-company exposure.