With most of their share prices down more than 20% year-to-date, the world's largest alternative asset managers are making their boldest moves yet. PitchBook's Q4 2025 US Public PE and GP Deal Roundup reveals that Blackstone, KKR, Apollo, Carlyle, Ares, TPG, and Blue Owl closed 2025 on their strongest deployment quarter of the year while aggressively expanding into insurance, retail wealth, and digital infrastructure.

What's New Long Angle's 2026 High Net Worth Asset Allocation Report reveals that 94% of high net worth investors now allocate to private and alternative assets, effectively eliminating the distinction between "core" and "alternative" holdings. The fifth annual benchmark study, surveying 233 investors with an average net worth of $17.3M, finds that private markets command 28% of total net worth and 31% of investable portfolios (excluding home equity). Private company equity al

Bain & Company's Global Private Equity Report 2026 reveals that private equity posted its second best year ever in 2025, with buyout deal value surging 44% to $904 billion and exit value jumping 47% to $717 billion. But the recovery was decidedly narrow.

PwC's 2026 Private Capital Outlook reveals that private capital is entering 2026 at a decisive inflection point where growth ambitions, liquidity engineering, and tax strategy are converging into a single integrated decision framework.

McKinsey's Global Private Markets Report 2026 reveals that private equity dealmaking returned with force in 2025, ending a prolonged downturn that had gripped the industry since 2022. Total PE deal value reached $2.6 trillion globally, up 19% over 2024, with buyout and growth transactions exceeding $500 million surging 44% to top $1 trillion. The year also produced the largest buyout in history: the $55 billion consortium takeover of Electronic Arts.

What's New David Sambur, Matt Nord, and Antoine Munfakh, Apollo's co-heads of private equity, make the case in their January 2026 report Private Equity Returns to Its Roots  that the asset class must abandon the leverage and multiple expansion playbook that dominated 2010 to 2022 and return to disciplined buying, hands on operational improvement, and flexible exit strategies to generate alpha in a normalized rate environment. Why It Matters Since 2018, capital calls have ex

The latest Coller Capital Global Private Capital Barometer surveyed 108 institutional investors managing $1.97 trillion collectively. The message is clear: show me the money.

ClearBridge Investments' 2026 infrastructure outlook highlights that listed infrastructure is benefiting from a convergence of structural tailwinds—AI driven power demand, decarbonization mandates, and aging network replacement—creating what the firm describes as unprecedented regulated earnings growth with visibility extending 7 to 10 years.

Private credit hits $3.5T but faces first stress test in 16 years as defaults rise and manager selectivity becomes critical.

What's New Bain & Company's Global Healthcare Private Equity Report 2026  reveals that global healthcare private equity delivered a record-breaking performance in 2025, with disclosed deal value exceeding an estimated $191 billion—surpassing the previous high set in 2021—while deal volume hit 445 buyouts, marking the second-highest annual total on record despite a second-quarter tariff-related pause. Why It Matters The record performance signals sustained investor confidenc

Private credit tops $1.7T globally, reshaping bank competition while supporting CRE valuations—but recession risks loom.

Secondaries, CRE debt, and infrastructure emerge as top picks as valuations reset and manager selection becomes critical.

What's New With Intelligence's Private Credit Outlook 2026  reveals that the asset class enters 2026 confronting its most challenging environment since the financial crisis, with cracks emerging in corporate credit evidenced by high-profile leveraged loan defaults, rising PIK usage now at 8% of BDC investment income, and a "true" default rate approaching 5% when selective defaults are included—setting the stage for over $100 billion in recently raised distressed and opportun

Private credit eyes LBO rebound as transparency demands intensify and mega-funds consolidate market share.

Preqin's Global Reports 2026 forecasts private markets entering the new year with cautious optimism and resilient long-term growth prospects across all major asset classes. The research firm projects private equity AUM approaching $12 trillion and private credit reaching $4.5 trillion by 2030, while infrastructure is set to nearly triple toward $3 trillion—with Europe leading that growth trajectory despite near-term deployment challenges and elevated interest rates constraini

Private capital hits $22T as investors flee broken stock-bond correlation; Q3 2025 PE deals reach highest since Q4 2021.

Morningstar's 2026 Global Outlook Report identifies private markets as the next frontier in portfolio construction, with semiliquid fund assets reaching nearly $450 billion through June 2025—up 77% since 2022—as new vehicle structures and regulatory support make private equity, credit, and real assets accessible to individual investors and retirement plans for the first time at scale.

What's New PitchBook's 2026 US Venture Capital Outlook forecasts a counterintuitive surge in early-stage deal activity despite sluggish fundraising, driven by multistage firms deploying aggressive seed strategies and AI capturing an unprecedented 65% of total deal value. First-time financing activity through Q3 2025 was just 200 deals behind 2021's record pace, defying expectations for a liquidity-constrained market. Why It Matters The fundamental structure of venture dealm

PitchBook's 2026 US Private Equity Outlook forecasts continued consolidation of fundraising power among top firms and a strategic return to platform LBOs, expected to capture 25% or more of deal activity as financing conditions improve. Through October, platform LBOs accounted for $525.3 billion in deal value—the highest since the 2021 peak.

PitchBook's 2026 EMEA Private Capital Outlook projects the ratio of PE-backed companies to public companies in Europe will hit a record 2.3x, up from 2.1x at end of 2025. Since 2014, PE-backed companies have doubled to roughly 13,800, while publicly listed firms have stagnated between 5,700 and 7,000 for two decades.