Blackstone, the world's largest alternative asset manager by assets under management, reported second-quarter earnings that comfortably surpassed Wall Street expectations, driven by gains across its artificial intelligence holdings and record client inflows that pushed AUM to approximately $1.35 trillion. The firm noted that nine of its ten best-performing positions are tied to AI.

Earnings Beat Consensus by a Wide Margin

Distributable earnings reached $1.52 per share, up from $1.21 in Q2 2025. Analysts polled by LSEG had forecast $1.35 per share, meaning the actual result exceeded consensus by a notable margin.

Total revenue climbed 36% year-over-year to $5.04 billion. Fee-related earnings came in at $1.43 per share, totaling $1.78 billion.

Blackstone's infrastructure investment arm posted gross returns of 7.2%, supported by favorable asset sales following a sluggish start to the year. The firm sold a partial stake in three data centers to Digital Realty and transferred control of power-infrastructure company Sabre Industries to TPG. These transactions brought total monetization proceeds to $31.8 billion for the quarter. The pace of monetization highlights how private equity firms are capitalizing on elevated demand for AI-adjacent infrastructure assets to realize gains.

AI Positioned at the Core of Blackstone's Portfolio

Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman said the quarterly performance validated the firm's earlier AI-focused strategy. The company has "decided to lean into the artificial intelligence megatrend," Schwarzman said, adding that becoming "a trusted partner at scale to many of the key innovators" had positioned the firm well for continued growth.

Blackstone's AI-linked holdings include a stake in Anthropic, the developer of the Claude AI assistant, along with a data center business that the firm has identified as a core profit engine. Blackstone took the data center platform QTS private in a $10 billion transaction in 2021; the platform has appreciated sharply as demand for computing capacity has surged in recent months. Rivals including Apollo Global Management, KKR, and Carlyle have also accelerated AI infrastructure investments, making the sector one of the most competitive areas in alternative asset management.

According to The Wall Street Journal, private equity positions in SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI also contributed to the gains. Reuters separately reported on the boost from AI investment gains.

The firm continues to commit substantial capital to AI infrastructure. Its credit and insurance unit joined a $35 billion financing platform established alongside Broadcom and Apollo Global Management to fund AI infrastructure for frontier labs, including Anthropic. In a separate initiative, Blackstone and Google announced plans to form an AI cloud company that will run on Google's custom chips, with Blackstone committing $5 billion in equity.

Retail Inflows Decline Across Key Funds

New retail subscriptions into BCRED, Blackstone's flagship private credit fund for individual investors, fell to $1 billion, down from $1.9 billion in the first quarter and $3.7 billion a year earlier. BCRED and similar retail private credit products from competitors expanded rapidly in recent years as individual investors sought higher-yielding alternatives to traditional fixed income, making the sustained decline in subscriptions a metric market participants are watching closely. The fund's net returns recovered to 0.4% following a weak first quarter, though that figure remained below the 2.2% delivered in the year-ago period. BCRED holds $79 billion in total assets.

Other flagship vehicles also saw inflows: Blackstone Private Equity Strategies attracted $2.4 billion, the BXINFRA infrastructure fund drew $861 million, and the BREIT real estate trust collected $1.2 billion.

Despite the strong quarterly results, Blackstone shares slipped 1.1% in early trading ahead of the Thursday open, pulling back from an initial premarket gain.