Rankings

The Largest Private Equity Firms in the World

Blackstone is the largest private-equity and alternatives manager in the world at about $1.27 trillion as of the fourth quarter of 2025, ahead of Brookfield and Apollo. Ranked instead by pure private-equity fundraising, KKR leads the 2026 PEI 300.

Explore institutional coverageSee the methodology

Largest by AUM: Blackstone (~$1.27T) · Top 20 combined: ~$7.1T AUM · #1 pure-PE fundraiser: KKR ($140B / 5yr)

A private equity firm raises capital from institutional investors, buys or backs private companies, improves them, and sells them years later for a gain, earning management fees and a share of profits along the way. The largest have outgrown that definition. As of 2026, Blackstone is the biggest at roughly $1.27 trillion in assets, ahead of Brookfield and Apollo; the twenty largest together manage about $7.1 trillion.

One number hides a distinction that matters. The firms at the top of this list are alternatives managers, not pure buyout shops. Total assets under management bundle private equity with credit, real estate, and infrastructure, and for several of these firms private equity is now the minority. Ares runs $622 billion, but only about $25 billion of it is dedicated private equity; Apollo and Ares are majority-credit; Brookfield tilts to infrastructure and real estate. Ranked by the cleaner measure — five-year direct private-equity fundraising, the basis for the PEI 300 — the order changes: KKR, EQT, Blackstone, TPG, and Thoma Bravo lead, per the 2026 PEI 300.

The industry raised about $1.3 trillion in private capital in 2025, roughly flat on the year, but buyout fundraising fell 16% to $395 billion as capital concentrated in the largest funds, per Bain & Company's 2026 Global Private Equity Report. Roughly $1.3 trillion of buyout dry powder sits unspent and aging, and an exit backlog of about 32,000 companies worth $3.8 trillion is pushing holding periods toward seven years. The firms below set the terms of that market. Every one links to its Altss profile, where coverage, leadership, and activity are tracked.

Key takeaways

The largest private equity firms in 2026, by the numbers

  • Blackstone ended 2025 at about $1.275 trillion in assets after a record year, drawing roughly $239 billion of net inflows including $71 billion in the fourth quarter alone, per Blackstone's Q4 2025 results.
  • KKR tops the 2026 PEI 300, having raised $140.4 billion for direct private equity over five years, ahead of EQT ($134.4B) and Blackstone ($111.8B) — a very different order from the total-AUM ranking.
  • Fundraising narrowed. Total private capital raised held near $1.3 trillion in 2025, but buyout fundraising fell 16% to $395 billion as limited partners concentrated commitments in fewer, larger managers, per Bain & Company.
  • Dry powder is aging. Roughly $1.3 trillion of buyout capital remains unspent, much of it from 2022-23 vintages, pressuring general partners to deploy before it stales, per Bain's 2026 report.
  • Secondaries hit a record. Transaction volume reached $226 billion in 2025, up 41% year over year, and Ardian closed the largest fund of any private-equity strategy that year — a $30 billion secondaries vehicle, per S&P Global Market Intelligence.
  • The exit logjam is the industry's defining problem: about 32,000 unsold portfolio companies worth $3.8 trillion, with average buyout holding periods stretching to roughly seven years, per Bain & Company.
By assets under management

Largest private equity firms by AUM

Total firm-wide AUM per each firm's latest disclosure, 2025-2026

Ordered by total firm-wide assets under management. For the large listed managers this figure spans private equity plus credit, real estate, and infrastructure; the note column flags where private equity is a minority and gives each firm's PEI 300 rank where available.

#FirmAUM (USD)Headquarters
1
BlackstoneWorld's largest alternatives manager; PE is one of four segments. #3 on the 2026 PEI 300 with $111.8B raised over five years (Q4 2025).
$1.27T
New York, United States
2
Brookfield Asset ManagementCrossed $1T AUM with $603B fee-bearing capital; weighted to infrastructure, renewables, and real estate over buyout PE (Q4 2025).
>$1.0T
New York / Toronto
3
Apollo Global ManagementApproaching $1T; credit and Athene insurance dominate, with classic PE a minority of assets (Q4 2025).
$938B
New York, United States
4
KKR#1 on the 2026 PEI 300 for PE fundraising ($140.4B / 5yr); AUM up 17% year over year (Q4 2025).
$744B
New York, United States
5
Ares ManagementA credit house — dedicated PE is only about $25B of $622B; total AUM up 29% (Q4 2025).
$622B
Los Angeles, United States
6
Carlyle GroupBalanced across global PE, credit, and investment solutions; record 2025 fee-related earnings on $54B of inflows (Q4 2025).
$477B
Washington, D.C., United States
7
TPGCrossed $300B AUM; #4 on the 2026 PEI 300; entered 2026 with $72B of dry powder (Q4 2025).
$303B
Fort Worth / San Francisco
8
EQTEurope's largest PE firm and #2 on the 2026 PEI 300; €270B total AUM after a record year of exits (year-end 2025).
~$290B
Stockholm, Sweden
9
CVC Capital Partners€205B AUM; record €21.9B of 2025 realizations after expanding into secondaries, credit, and infrastructure (year-end 2025).
~$220B
Luxembourg / London
10
Bain CapitalPrivately held; #7 on the 2026 PEI 300, spanning PE, credit, special situations, public equity, and real estate (2025).
~$185B
Boston, United States
11
Thoma BravoLargest dedicated software-buyout firm; #5 on the 2026 PEI 300 after a $34.4B multi-fund raise (flagship Fund XVI at $24.3B) (mid-2025).
~$181B
Chicago / San Francisco
12
General AtlanticGrowth-equity leader; #8 on the 2026 PEI 300, expanding into credit, climate, and infrastructure (Q3 2025).
~$118B
New York, United States
13
Silver LakeLargest pure-play technology PE firm; about $104B in combined AUM per its latest Form ADV (mid-2025).
~$104B
Menlo Park, United States
14
Vista Equity PartnersEnterprise-software specialist self-reporting over $100B in AUM (early 2026).
~$103B
Austin, United States
15
Warburg PincusOne of the oldest private growth investors; AUM firming toward $100B after launching an inaugural GP-led capital-solutions fund (early 2026).
~$100B
New York, United States
16
Advent InternationalGlobal buyout firm; #9 on the 2026 PEI 300, active across tech, healthcare, industrials, and financial services (2025).
~$95B
Boston, United States
17
Insight PartnersSoftware-focused growth and buyout investor spanning venture to buyout stages; about $90B in regulatory AUM (2025).
~$90B
New York, United States
18
Clearlake CapitalValue investor in tech, industrials, and consumer; a pending acquisition of Pathway Capital would roughly double AUM on close (2025).
~$90B
Santa Monica, United States
19
PermiraEuropean buyout and growth firm advising funds with about €80B of committed capital across tech, consumer, and healthcare (2024).
~$88B
London, United Kingdom
20
Hellman & FriedmanLarge-cap buyout specialist known for concentrated software and services deals; figure is an estimate, as the firm is private (2025).
~$75B
San Francisco, United States

AUM as-of dates are not uniform: listed managers report as of 31 Dec 2025, while several private firms (Thoma Bravo, General Atlantic, Silver Lake, Permira) disclose at different dates. EUR figures for EQT and CVC are converted at roughly 1.08 USD/EUR. Figures for privately held firms (Bain Capital, Warburg Pincus, Insight, Clearlake, Permira, Hellman & Friedman) are self-reported or estimated and should be treated as approximate.

How we rank — and why the order shifts by metric

This table orders firms by total firm-wide AUM, the figure most readers mean by "largest." For the biggest managers that number spans private equity, credit, real estate, and infrastructure, so it overstates pure private-equity scale — Blackstone, Brookfield, Apollo, KKR, Ares, and Carlyle are diversified alternatives platforms.

The cleaner private-equity measure is five-year direct-PE fundraising, the basis for the PEI 300. On that basis the leaders are KKR, EQT, Blackstone, TPG, and Thoma Bravo. Two firms in the PEI 300 top ten — Hg and Goldman Sachs Asset Management — are omitted here because their comparable firm-wide PE AUM is not cleanly disclosed.

Read the full methodology
FAQ

Largest private equity firms — common questions

What is the largest private equity firm in the world?
By total assets under management, Blackstone is the largest at roughly $1.27 trillion as of the fourth quarter of 2025. By pure private-equity fundraising — capital raised for direct PE over the past five years — KKR leads the 2026 PEI 300, followed by EQT and Blackstone. The answer depends on which measure you use.
How are these private equity firms ranked?
They are ordered by total firm-wide AUM drawn from each firm's most recent public disclosure — Q4 or full-year 2025 results, 10-K filings, or Form ADV. For diversified managers, that figure includes credit, real estate, and infrastructure alongside private equity, so the note column flags where PE is a minority and gives each firm's PEI 300 rank.
Why is Ares or Apollo ranked high if they are mostly credit?
Total AUM rewards scale across all strategies, not private equity alone. Ares manages $622 billion but only about $25 billion is dedicated private equity; Apollo's assets are dominated by credit and its Athene insurance business. Both are among the world's largest managers, but not among the largest by pure buyout activity.
How much dry powder does private equity have?
Roughly $1.3 trillion of buyout dry powder remained unspent at the end of 2025, much of it from 2022-23 vintage funds, per Bain & Company's 2026 Global Private Equity Report. That aging capital, plus a large exit backlog, is pushing firms to deploy and return capital to investors.
Where do these figures come from?
From each firm's Q4 and full-year 2025 earnings releases and 10-K filings, the 2026 PEI 300, and Bain & Company's 2026 Global Private Equity Report. Privately held firms are self-reported or estimated. This page was last reviewed in July 2026 and is updated as firms publish new disclosures.

Track the firms that move private capital

Altss maintains a live profile for every firm on this list — leadership, strategy, filings, and activity — alongside coverage of 30,000+ institutional investors, RIAs, and family offices.

Explore institutional coverageBrowse all rankings