Blackstone, Apollo and KKR: Where BlackRock Is the NewcomerThin moat

BlackRock (BLK) — moat facet

The one contest BlackRock is not winning, in the business its whole strategy depends on.

In private markets, the roles reverse. BlackRock is the challenger — large, well-capitalised, arriving late, and buying its way in.

Client assets BlackRock acquired ($bn)$118bnHPS, Jul 2025$70bnGIP, Oct 2024$3bnElmTree, Sep 2025Real scale, bought rather than built, against incumbents with decades of realised returns
In every other market BlackRock is the incumbent. Here it arrived late, at scale, by writing cheques.

Global Infrastructure Partners brought $70 billion of client assets in October 2024 and HPS Investment Partners about $118 billion in July 20251. Those are serious franchises with real track records, and the combination puts BlackRock among the larger alternatives managers. It does not put it among the established ones. Blackstone, Apollo and KKR have decades of realised returns, deal-sourcing networks built over cycles, and relationships with the limited partners who allocate this capital.

What matters here is that track record and relationships are the product. An institution committing to a ten-year fund is buying the manager's judgement, and the only evidence available is what they did in the last three cycles. BlackRock's alternatives franchise has that evidence — in the names of the businesses it acquired, attached to teams it must now keep.

The competitive dynamic also differs from public markets in an important way. Private markets managers do not compete for the same assets. They compete for the same deals, and more competitors bidding means lower returns for everyone, which is the mechanism by which a crowded asset class stops being attractive.

This is rated thin because BlackRock's position is genuinely weak relative to the incumbents, and because it matters disproportionately: alternatives are 3% of long-term assets and 17% of long-term base fees2, and the improvement in the fee mix that justifies the current multiple depends on that share rising.

Moat trajectory: Widening

BlackRock closed GIP and HPS inside a year and now has real scale in infrastructure and private credit where it previously had almost none. It is still the arriviste against incumbents with decades of realised returns, and the acquired teams have to stay for the position to hold.

The number that tests this moat
Reported
Private markets base fees, latest quarter
$639M in Q2 2026, from $499M

BlackRock bought its scale in private markets rather than building it. Base fees rising is the bought scale earning; the incumbents' decades of realised returns are what it is competing against.

Source: BlackRock Form 10-Q, Q2 2026 ↗
References
  1. ReportedGlobal Infrastructure Partners brought $70 billion of client assets in October 2024 and HPS Investment Partners about $118 billion in July 2025
    BlackRock, Inc. Form 10-K, FY2025, acquisitions and equity — Aperio (approximately $41 billion of AUM, February 2021), Kreos (approximately $2 billion, August 2023), SpiderRock (approximately $4 billion, May 2024), Global Infrastructure Partners (approximately $70 billion, October 2024), Preqin (March 2025), HPS Investment Partners (approximately $118 billion, closed 1 July 2025) and ElmTree (approximately $3 billion, September 2025); the HPS consideration was paid substantially in Class B-2 common units of a consolidated subsidiary, BlackRock Saturn Subco, LLC, "which are exchangeable on a one-for-one basis into common stock of the registrant", with 7,614,515 such units included in the fully diluted share count on the cover of the Form 10-K — FY2025 · publ. February 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedThis is rated thin because BlackRock's position is genuinely weak relative to the incumbents, and because it matters disproportionately: alternatives are 3% of long-term assets and 17% of long-term base fees, and the...
    BlackRock, Inc. Form 10-K, FY2025, Item 1 Business — assets under management of $14.0 trillion at 31 December 2025 (long-term $12,960,786M plus cash management $1,080,732M); equity $7,793,875M, fixed income $3,272,021M, multi-asset $1,223,625M, alternatives $423,614M, digital assets $78,435M, currency and commodities $169,216M; five-year AUM CAGR 10%, alternatives 22%, multi-asset 13%, equity 12%, currency and commodities 17%, fixed income 4%; by style, active $3,432,743M, non-ETF index $4,060,333M, ETFs $5,467,710M; approximately 24,900 employees in more than 30 countries serving clients in over 100 — FY2025 · publ. February 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 23, 2026