Blackstone president Jon Gray expressed confidence in a strong IPO market for 2026, citing artificial intelligence as the primary driver, according to a Yahoo Finance report. Gray, the expected eventual successor to longtime CEO Stephen Schwarzman, made the comments during the firm’s first quarter earnings call.
Despite a volatile start to 2026, which included the outbreak of the US-Israeli war in Iran, global IPO proceeds rose more than 50% in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2025, according to Dealogic data. Nine of Blackstone’s portfolio companies across the United States, Europe, and Asia have submitted regulatory documents for new listings, according to Bloomberg. Two notable Blackstone-backed companies shared plans to go public earlier this month: sandwich chain Jersey Mike’s and Liftoff, a mobile ad tech company that refiled this week after withdrawing its initial public filing two months ago. Blackstone’s private equity fund also holds shares in private companies OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX, which are widely expected to be among the year’s biggest listing headliners.
Blackstone posted strong first quarter earnings, with total distributable earnings climbing 25% to $1.8 billion compared to the first quarter of last year. However, within the firm’s credit and insurance division, distributable earnings fell 26% to $373 million, and returns from the private credit business declined to 0.6% from 2.7% in the year-ago quarter. Blackstone’s stock fell more than 7% on Thursday despite the overall strong results.
Blackstone’s flagship non-traded private credit fund, Bcred, faced heightened redemption requests amid a broader investor exodus during the quarter. The outflows did not prevent Blackstone from recording higher overall investment inflows into its credit and insurance business, which accounts for roughly a third of the firm’s managed assets. Gray pushed back on broader concerns about the private credit industry’s resilience, noting that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell, and several major bank executives, including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, have all said they do not view private credit as a systemic risk.
Gray did acknowledge that sectors most exposed to AI disruption, particularly professional services, information services, and enterprise software, could see less IPO activity. He suggested Blackstone’s portfolio composition may give it an advantage in the current environment relative to firms with heavier exposure to those segments.
