Blackstone reported strong second-quarter 2026 results, with distributable earnings rising 26 percent year over year to $2 billion, or $1.52 per common share, while highlighting significant momentum in its secondaries business. The firm disclosed that it has raised more than $14 billion to date for its new buyout secondaries flagship, targeting at least $22 billion in total commitments, as part of a broader institutional fundraising cycle that included several strategies hitting their hard caps in 2026.
The secondaries push came alongside a wave of institutional drawdown activity across the firm. Three funds, spanning opportunistic private credit, life sciences, and Asia private equity, reached their hard caps, and the firm expects its new private equity energy transition flagship to do the same shortly. Combined, these strategies represent nearly $40 billion in commitments. Total assets under management climbed 11 percent year over year to a record $1.35 trillion, supported by nearly $70 billion of inflows in the quarter and more than $260 billion over the trailing 12 months.
Executives attributed much of the firm’s growth to large-scale investments tied to artificial intelligence, including data centers, energy and power assets, and direct stakes in companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX. Fee-related earnings grew 22 percent year over year to $1.8 billion, while net realizations increased 27 percent to $414 million despite what management described as elevated geopolitical volatility during the quarter. Fee-related performance revenues rose 68 percent to $793 million, driven by scaling across the firm’s perpetual strategy platforms.
Chief Financial Officer Michael Chae said the firm’s credit segment ended the quarter with $84 billion of dry powder, more than double its level at the start of 2024, supporting expectations for double-digit base management fee growth in 2027. President and Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Gray pointed to renewed strength across the private wealth channel, where assets under management grew 16 percent year over year to $324 billion, alongside continued growth in secondaries and other institutional strategies.
KEY QUOTES:
“In secondaries, we’ve raised over $14 billion to date for our new buyout flagship with a target of at least $22 billion.”
Jonathan Gray, President, COO & Director
“Our credit business overall ended the quarter with $84 billion of dry powder, which, as you know, largely earns fees as it’s invested, that dry powder balance is over double where it was at the beginning of 2024 and almost 1/3 larger than just the beginning of this year.”
Michael Chae, CFO & Vice Chairman
