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Insights from the World’s Leading Alternative Asset Manager

March 13, 2026

Data Center Demand Surges

March 13, 2026

Data Center Demand Surges

As AI usage continues to grow, so does the demand for data centers.
US data center demand has surged over the past five years. The top 5 hyperscalers are projected to spend over $700B in 2026. ^{[ 1 ]}
We see these patterns reflected in data from QTS, the world’s largest data center business and a Blackstone portfolio company.^{[ 2 ]} QTS leasing volume is up 50%+ YoY in 2025, and we expect another strong year of growth in 2026.

QTS Cumulative Leased Capacity

2026_03_13_data_center_demand_white_bg_desktop_1024x577 (1).svg

^{Source: Blackstone Proprietary Data, as of December 31, 2025.}

November 7, 2025

Positive Signals from Our Portfolio

November 7, 2025

Positive Signals from Our Portfolio

While volatility, shifting policy, and shocks to sentiment have driven headlines in 2025, our data has shown consistent and positive demand growth – reinforcing our confidence in the investment landscape.
Ahead of Q3 earnings, our US PE operating companies posted +9% YoY Flash revenue growth, the fastest rate in two years, while EBITDA margins expanded YoY for an 8th consecutive quarter to 35%. ^{[ 1 ]}
The market is catching up to our view, and S&P earnings have echoed our early data: over 80% of companies are beating expectations. ^{[ 2 ]}

Optimism from our surveyed companies has been on an upswing since April, with nearly 90% of responding CEOs expecting stable or improving business conditions over the next 12 months. ^{[ 3 ]}

Blackstone US PE Operating Portfolio Company Revenue Growth
% YoY

^{Source: Blackstone proprietary data as of September 30, 2025, from 39 BCP portfolio companies. Excludes select public investments, select FIG investments, certain new investments, investments where YoY growth rates are not comparable due to divestitures and certain other companies for which timely forecasts are unavailable.}

September 5, 2025

Electricity Demand Rising Rapidly

September 5, 2025

Electricity Demand Rising Rapidly

Data center development, electrification, and the reindustrialization of the US economy are collectively driving a step change in power demand.
Across the US, there have been significant upward revisions to regional power demand forecasts compared to 3-5 years ago (the latest forecast roughly 11x greater or an 8% CAGR). ^{[ 1 ]}
Meeting this rising demand will require huge amounts of investment to reinforce and upgrade the country’s aging electrical grid. Utilities are forecasted to invest $1.4T in the grid from 2025 to 2030 alone (equal to ~1.1x the market cap of the sector today). ^{[ 2 ]}

Projected Utility Demand Growth in Top Quartile Growth Markets
Average Compound Annual Growth Rate

^{Sources: Pre-2024 and latest forecast represents the average of Texas, Northern Indiana, Virginia, Georgia and Arizona. Texas: Texas represents ERCOT summer peak demand CAGR published in ’23 (’23 – ’32) vs. latest forecast as of April 2025 (’25 – ‘31). Northern Indiana: N. Indiana represents NIPSCO peak load forecast published in ’21 (roughly flat through ’40) vs. the 2024 Stakeholder Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) from October 2024. Uses a forecast period of (’23 – ’35) and does not include upside emerging load from data centers in revised case. Georgia: Georgia represents utility Georgia Power’s summer peak demand CAGR published in 2022 (’25 – ’31) vs. latest forecast published in July 2025 (’25 – ’31). Virginia: Virginia represents Dominion PJM 10-Yr summer peak demand CAGR published in ’21 vs. ’25. Arizona: Arizona represents long-term electricity sales forecast of Pinnacle West (NYSE:PNW; fully regulated electric utility serving ~1.4M customers in high-growing cities across Arizona) in ’19 vs. ’25.}

July 3, 2025

Private Credit Resilience in Times of Uncertainty

July 3, 2025

Private Credit Resilience in Times of Uncertainty

In early April, market volatility hit public credit markets hard.
High-yield bond spreads widened sharply — one of the most significant moves in history — before recovering ~71% by early May. ^{[ 1 ]}
But private credit markets remained resilient, operating normally.
Further, private credit can offer stable cash flows, insulation from certain policy changes and can serve as a valuable tool for portfolio diversification. ^{[ 2 ]}

High-Yield Spreads Gap Out in One of Most Significant Moves in History
8-week Absolute High-Yield Spread Changes (in bps)

^{Source: Bloomberg US Corporate High-Yield Index, as of April 8th, 2025.}

June 3, 2025

AI Boom Drives Data Center Growth

June 3, 2025

AI Boom Drives Data Center Growth

Recent AI efficiency advancements like DeepSeek are driving further demand and investment in digital infrastructure.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently noted, “We continue to believe AI is a once-in-a-lifetime reinvention of everything we know, the demand is unlike anything we’ve seen before…” ^{[ 1 ]}
The five largest hyperscalers are rapidly increasing their data center capex, expecting to invest $328B in 2025 (up 40% YoY) and $2T over the next five years.^{[ 2 ] [ 3 ]}
Blackstone spotted this trend early. Our ~$30B data center development pipeline is 100% pre-leased to high-quality tenants, including leading technology companies on 15+ year leases.

Data Center Capex by the 5 Largest Hyperscalers (Meta, Google, Oracle, Microsoft, Amazon)
($ Billions)

^{Source: Morgan Stanley, as of February 2025.}

May 20, 2025

Secondaries Surge

May 20, 2025

Secondaries Surge

Publicly listed stocks and bonds trade on exchanges, while private drawdown funds are generally bought and sold on the “secondaries market.”
As private equity commitments have grown, so has the secondaries market. It has surged from $26B in 2013 to $160B in 2024, up 6x, which still represents less than 1.4% of the total value in private market funds.¹
That growth, combined with today’s muted IPO and M&A environment, and a heightened interest from endowments and others seeking early liquidity, has in our view created a particularly attractive environment for secondaries investors.

Secondaries Market Transaction Volume
($ Billion)

^{Source: Evercore, February 2025.
1. Preqin, as of September 30, 2024.}

April 16, 2025

Private Real Estate Has Defied Downturns

April 16, 2025

Private Real Estate Has Defied Downturns

Recent public market volatility underscores the importance of diversification.¹
Historical data shows that private investments have provided diversification benefits, offering better downside protection during public market declines.
Private real estate is a prime example of this, with a 0.0 correlation to public equities, and a -0.2 correlation to investment grade bonds.²
In seven of the last eight S&P 500 annual declines since 1980, private real estate experienced a positive return, delivering an average return of 6.2%, while the S&P dropped 13.8%.

S&P 500 vs. Private Real Estate During S&P Declines
(% Average Annual Total Return)

^{Source: S&P and NFI-ODCE Index, as of December 31, 2024. Covers annual total returns during S&P drawdowns since 1980 (1981, 1990, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2008, 2018 and 2022).
1. Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against losses.
2. Morningstar Direct, NCREIF, as of December 31, 2024. Covers a 20-year period from 2005 to 2024. Private real estate represented by the NFI-ODCE Index, public equities represented by the S&P 500 Index and investment grade bonds by the Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index.}

March 31, 2025

Power Consumption Is Surging

March 31, 2025

Power Consumption Is Surging

After 20 years of flat demand, power consumption is surging.
A 40% increase is projected over the next decade driven by AI, digitalization, and manufacturing.¹
We estimate that meeting this demand will require a 6x increase in construction of new power generation and transmission capacity to keep pace.²
Connecting just the current energy projects in the US transmission queue to the grid is estimated to cost ~$4T, presenting a significant opportunity for private capital.³

US Electricity Demand¹
Terawatt Hours

^{1. EIA, as of November 2024 and NREL as of August 2022. Reflects total net electricity generation. Figures for 2024 and beyond reflect estimates.
2. GridStrategies, 2024.
3. S&P as of July 2024, and LevelTen Energy Report as of June 2024. Based on the fact that over 90% of the interconnection queue is renewables (wind and solar) and amount to $1.5B/GW to build in North America. Assumes 2600 gigawatts in the current transmission queue, per Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as of April 2024.}

March 14, 2025

Real Estate: The Power of Skilled Investing

March 14, 2025

Real Estate: The Power of Skilled Investing

Historically, some of the best returns came when investors least expected them.
In the five years following both the Global Financial Crisis and Savings & Loan Crisis, private real estate saw returns 2x greater than the long-term average excluding these recovery periods.
Missing out on investing during these recovery periods means potentially missing some of the top performing vintage years – these are the times to consider leaning in, not sitting out.

Returns Post-GFC and S&L Periods
Private Real Estate Annualized Average Returns

^{Source: NCREIF, as of June 30, 2024. Reflects the NFI-ODCE levered gross total return. Long-term average excluding 5-year recovery periods reflects annualized average 5-year returns from June 30, 1993 to June 30, 2024, excluding the 5 years following the Savings and Loan Crisis (“S&L”) (starting June 30, 1993) and Global Financial Crisis (“GFC”) (starting December 30, 2009). 5-year recovery periods post real estate downturns reflect the average of annualized 5-year returns following the Savings and Loan Crisis and the Global Financial Crisis.}

February 28, 2025

Closing the Medical Innovation Funding Gap

February 28, 2025

Closing the Medical Innovation Funding Gap

Genomics, engineering and AI are advancing innovation in life sciences at an unprecedented pace, leading to the invention of many more potential medicines and medical devices than ever before.
Despite this progress, product development remains prohibitively expensive – averaging $2.6 billion per new medicine.¹
1 in 3 new therapies remain unfunded due to an estimated $172 billion annual funding gap.
We are helping to close this gap by collaborating with premier biopharma companies to fund breakthrough medicines and medical technologies, allowing them to reach patients who need them.

Annual Biopharma R&D Funding Gap
R&D Capital

^{Source: Evaluate Pharma and Morgan Stanley, as of January 2024. The annual funding gap is Blackstone’s estimate of the gap between the annual spread between the demand for medicine and device development capital and the supply of development capital from Biopharma and MedTech companies through R&D budgets.}
^{1. Deloitte Analysis, 2022.}

February 26, 2025

60/40 Portfolio Is Losing its Edge

February 26, 2025

60/40 Portfolio Is Losing its Edge

The classic 60/40 stock and bond mix has been a go-to for growth and stability.
But since 2022, stocks and bonds have been moving in sync – only displaying a negative correlation 19% of the time.
With bonds failing to hedge against stock downturns, we believe this strategy is becoming unreliable.
In our view, this creates an opportunity for investors to rethink diversification and increase exposure to private markets.

Stock-Bond Correlation from 2022 to Present
(% of the time)

^{Source: Bloomberg, as of 1/31/2025. Based on monthly returns from January 2022 to January 2025 between the S&P 500 Index (stocks) and Bloomberg US Treasury Index (bonds).}

January 24, 2025

Financing the Real Economy

January 24, 2025

Financing the Real Economy

Private credit’s next chapter is financing everyday assets, or “the real economy” – digital and energy infrastructure, equipment, vehicle fleets and loans, credit cards – through asset backed finance (ABF).
Borrowers are increasingly looking outside public markets for other sources of financing to meet their capital needs.
Private ABF may be particularly attractive for investors in today’s environment, with the potential to offer higher risk-adjusted returns compared to similarly rated corporate credit and public asset backed securities.
This coupled with robust demand for capital underpins a potential $30 trillion+ market opportunity¹, especially in high-conviction sectors, like power and infrastructure, which have significant growth opportunity fueled by secular tailwinds.

Large and Diverse Opportunity Set for Private Credit¹

^{1. McKinsey & Company, The Next Era of Private Credit, September 2024.}

Archive

Grocery Gains: Strength in Supermarket Retail

December 16, 2024

Online retail continues to capture an outsized share of consumer spend growth, but the limited new supply of shopping centers in the US is driving impressive strength for grocery-anchored retail.
New brick & mortar retail supply is down 80% vs. historical averages.¹ Retail has an especially bright spot – shopping centers with grocery stores – which are currently 95% occupied.²
Consumers’ holiday budgets are ~30% higher this year vs. last year, with the share spent on food & decor projected to increase over 20%.³ With continued strength in consumer spending, well-located shopping centers with grocery stores are poised to potentially benefit from stronger rent growth.

US Retail Supply
Completions as % of Stock (TTM)

^{Source: CoStar, as of September 30, 2024. New supply reflects net delivered square feet over the total existing retail stock. Reflects annual average for historical time periods.
1. CoStar, as of September 30, 2024.
2. JLL as of January 17, 2024.
3. JLL Holiday Shopping Survey, 2024 and National Retail Federation, as of October 22, 2024.}

Filling the Massive Infrastructure Gap

November 6, 2024

A growing number of infrastructure projects – from data centers to EV charging stations – are waiting to be connected to the US power grid.
In fact, the capacity in current transmission queues is twice the total installed US power capacity.
It will cost an estimated ~$3.9 trillion – the equivalent of $1.5 billion for every gigawatt of power – to fill this infrastructure gap.¹
We believe that this demand will help boost economic growth and create near-term and long-term jobs.

US Power Grid Transmission Queue

^{Source: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as of April 2024.
1. S&P as of July 2024, and LevelTen Energy Report as of June 2024. This figure is based on the fact that over 90% of the interconnection queue is renewables (wind and solar) and amount to $1.5Bn/GW to build in North America.}

M&A Rebound Bodes Well for Private Credit

October 16, 2024

History suggests lower rates support both private equity buyers and credit lenders as M&A activity increases.
In North America, there is $1.5 trillion of dry powder in private equity, now being put to work as the Fed lowered rates.¹
Private credit is financing these transactions, filling the gaps left by traditional bank lenders.
The shift is structural—private lenders accounted for 86% of all leveraged buyouts in 2024 versus 65% in 2021.²

M&A Deal Volume
($ in billions, from 1985-2023)

^{Sources: Federal Reserve, Capital IQ and Thomson Reuters, as of December 31, 2023. M&A deal volume covers annual data from 1985-2023. Higher and lower rate environments determined by the annual 10-year US Treasury yield and whether it is above or below the average 10-year yield over the full period (1985-2023).
1. Preqin, as of June 30, 2024. Reflects latest data available and North America dry powder.
2. Pitchbook LCD, as of June 30, 2024, and December 31, 2021.}

The Hidden Private Equity Opportunity: Mid-Caps

October 3, 2024

Investors generally remain focused on a small number of mega-cap companies.
But for private equity investors, the opportunity exists in public mid-size companies, which are trading at the most attractive valuations in over 20 years.
Blackstone recently acquired mid-size companies in digital media and software/technology at a significant discount to their publicly traded peers.
We are watching mid-size businesses with strong fundamentals that others might overlook.

Public-to-Private Transactions

^{Source: Blackstone, S&P Capital IQ as of 6/30/2024. BX completed deal represents each respective Blackstone completed deal TEV at cost/NTM EBITDA. Median public company represents TEV/NTM EBITDA for comparable public peers from S&P Capital IQ and represents latest Blackstone analysis.}

E-Commerce Growth Fueling Logistics Demand

September 6, 2024

E-commerce growth has been a powerful tailwind for logistics real estate.
Consumer expectations for faster delivery are pushing e-commerce retailers to compete for faster shipping times – Amazon’s average delivery turnaround has decreased to 1.5 days vs. 4.1 days in 2020.¹
Meeting today’s consumer demands requires strategically located warehouses in densely populated areas.
Where you invest matters: Blackstone is a global leader in last-mile logistics investing.

Growth in Sales and Deliveries
(Percent Year-Over-Year, FY 2023)

^{Source: Brick and Mortar and E-Commerce Sales: U.S. Census Bureau, as of December 31, 2023. Brick and mortar sales reflect total retail sales excluding motor vehicles and parts dealers, gasoline stations, food services and e-commerce sales. Amazon: Amazon 2023 Letter to Shareholders, as of April 11, 2024.
1. NielsenIQ, as of September 18, 2023. Reflects the number of days from an online purchase transaction to package arrival from Q2 2020 to Q2 2023.}

Real Estate Values Are Bottoming

August 8, 2024

Property prices started to recover in January and have remained stable or higher every month since, ending ~2 years of declines.¹
Increased debt availability and lower borrowing costs are helping prices recover and supporting greater transaction volume.
Historically, periods of dislocation have produced some of the best opportunities for returns for private real estate funds.

Green Street – All Property Values Index
(Indexed to August 2007 = 100)

^{Source: Green Street Advisors, as of June 30, 2024.
1. Reflects Green Street Commercial Property Price Index for All Property.}

Record-Breaking Summer Travel

July 23, 2024

According to TSA data, the US has seen 12 of the 15 busiest travel days on record since mid-May.¹
International-bound travel is particularly strong. As of May, over 28 million Americans have traveled abroad in 2024 – the most in this time period over the past five years.²
At Blackstone, we recognized the “revenge travel” trend early, which helped inform investments across our real estate and private equity businesses.

Daily Volume of Travelers Screened by TSA
(7-day Moving Average, Millions of Passengers)

Investing Before the All-Clear

^{Source: Transportation Security Administration and Macrobond, as of July 9, 2024.
1. Transportation Security Administration, as of July 9, 2024.
2. International Trade Association, as of May 31, 2024.}

AI Driving Demand for Data Centers

July 2, 2024

Artificial intelligence is driving a generational investment opportunity in the infrastructure that supports it.
Data center space is being eaten up at a rapid pace, reaching record heights in 2023, 11x that of 2016.
Data center demand is expected to continue as new AI models are released.
Upcoming text-to-video AI (like OpenAI’s Sora) could require 10,000x the computing power of a Google search.¹

Step-Function Demand Increase
National Gross Data Center Absorption, Megawatts
Investing Before the All-Clear

^{Source: Datacenterhawk, as of December 31, 2023.
1. Video AI based on Sora, sourced from Factorial Funds as of March 15, 2024.}

Investing Before the All-Clear

June 4, 2024

If you look at the real estate cycle coming out of the GFC, values bottomed well before market sentiment suggests.
While headlines remained negative for years, values were actually improving.
We are focused on the long view, not the rear view – deploying capital in an opportunity-rich environment, much like today.

Commercial Real Estate Values Through the GFC¹
Indexed, June 2007 = 100

Investing Before the All-Clear

^{Note: Represents Blackstone’s view of the current market environment as of the date appearing in this material only. There can be no assurance that the trends described herein will continue or not reverse.
1. Green Street Advisors, as of December 31, 2023. Reflects the Commercial Property Price Index, which captures the prices at which US commercial real estate transactions are currently being negotiated and contracted. Equally weights Core Sectors: multifamily, office, industrial and retail.
2. Reuters, as of July 29, 2009. Wall Street Journal, as of August 25, 2010. Forbes, as of October 3, 2012.}

Real Estate Debt Markets Are Reopening

May 14, 2024

Commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) issuance has picked up meaningfully, up nearly 5x in Q1 2024 vs Q1 2023.
CMBS spreads have narrowed, bringing down the cost of capital.¹
More accessible commercial real estate debt is likely to drive greater transaction activity.

US CMBS Issuance Activity
($ in billions)

^{Source: Green Street Advisors, as of March 31, 2024. Issuance data is for single asset single borrower CMBS loans.
1. Blackstone proprietary data, as of March 31, 2024. CMBS spreads denoted as high quality (AAA) spreads across multi-family, industrial, data centers and manufactured housing sectors.}

Rising Trade Drives Infrastructure Investment

April 15, 2024

The US has had a rapid increase in trade with Mexico, Vietnam, Central/South America and Europe over the past few years.
These changing trade patterns have driven east and gulf coast ports to have some of the fastest growth in shipping volumes.¹
This has contributed to $222B in US manufacturing construction in February 2024 – over 2x 2021.²
We are seeing this in real time through our port and logistics businesses.

Shifting US Trade Patterns
($ in billions)

^{Source: US Census Bureau, as of December 31, 2023. Data is annual total trade in goods.
1. Based on Moffatt & Nichol and Ports Authority data as of May 2023. Comparison based on 2017-2022 actual volume growth CAGRs.
2. US Census Bureau, as of April 1, 2024. Manufacturing construction spending represents monthly value of construction put in place (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in real US dollar terms.}

Data Center Demand Is Growing in India

February 16, 2024

The transition to a digital world and the explosion of AI are driving a need for data centers worldwide.
India has only 52% internet penetration among its citizens (versus 92% in the US). This, coupled with a low cost of data, has led to an exponential increase in data consumption.¹
Despite rapidly growing tech adoption, India’s data center capacity is still a fraction of leading global markets.

Data center stock comparison
(MW / million population)

^{Source: datacenterHawk, JLL (1H 2023 Datacenter Outlook), Structure Research, World Bank. MW / million population is computed based on national population estimates. Data is based on third party operators and does not include self-build data centers by firms.
1. Internet in India Report (2022), DataReportal Digital Report (2022), cable.co.uk (2023), Nokia Mobile Broadband Index (2023)
2. Represents Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris which are primary data center hubs in Europe. Population for FLAP is represented by Germany, Netherlands, France and United Kingdom.}

A New Boom in US Manufacturing

December 20, 2023

US private manufacturing construction is up 72% from a year ago, with 71% currently focused in the south and west.¹
Every durable manufacturing job creates nearly 9 related jobs—a tailwind for these regions, which are already experiencing strong growth in population, jobs and wages.²
More broadly, $110 billion in new clean energy investments have been announced due to recent government incentive programs, with an additional $910 billion for manufacturing and infrastructure projects.³
We see these trends continuing to benefit demand for investments in the energy transition, as well as commodities, logistics, storage and transportation.

Total US Private Manufacturing Construction Spending
($ in billions; seasonally adjusted annualized rate)

^{Source: US Census Bureau, as of 10/31/2023.
1. US Census Bureau, as of 10/31/2023. Data reflects value of private construction put in place for manufacturing.
2. Economic Policy Institute, as of 1/23/2019.
3. https://www.whitehouse.gov/invest/. Data reflects announcements since the IRA, CHIPS Act, and IIJA were enacted ($36 billion in announced investments and $74 billion in commitments for clean energy projects, and $356 billion in announced investments and $554 billion in commitments for manufacturing and infrastructure projects).}

With Increasing Risks, Size & Scale Matter

December 5, 2023

Larger companies are often well-positioned for elevated rates and growth challenges.
Companies with EBITDA of under $50 million have historically defaulted at more than five times the rate of companies with EBITDA of over $100 million.¹
We believe lending to larger companies is one important way for private credit managers to protect capital today.

Average Quarterly Covenant Default Rate

^{1. As of September 30, 2023. The “Lincoln International Private Market Database,” also known as the Lincoln Valuations & Opinions Group (“VOG”) Database, is a quarterly compilation of over 4,750 portfolio companies from a wide assortment of private equity investors and non-bank lenders. Most of these companies are highly levered with debt financing provided via the direct lending market and in many instances, Lincoln estimates the fair value of at least one senior debt security in the portfolio companies’ capital structures. In assessing the data, VOG relies on commonly accepted valuation methodologies and each valuation analysis is unique and conforms to fair value accounting principles. The analyses are then vetted by auditors, fund managers and their board of directors, as well as other regulators. © 2023 Lincoln Partners Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. Third party use is at user’s own risk. Average Quarterly Covenant Default Rate represented as the average quarterly share of companies in the Lincoln International proprietary database that have breached at least one covenant for the period June 30, 2018 through September 30, 2023, which is the full sample for which data is currently available. Average quarterly covenant default rates for companies with fewer than $50 million in EBITDA and greater than $100 million in EBITDA were 12% and 2%, respectively, in the noted time period.}

Last Round of the Inflation Fight

November 3, 2023

If this is the final round of the inflation fight, it feels like the longest, with US producer prices up 2.2% year-on-year in September, the third consecutive monthly increase.¹
Yet survey data from a subset of Blackstone portfolio companies suggests a more encouraging shift.
Nearly Flat Input Costs: In Q3, companies responding to our survey of Chief Procurement Officers reported just a 0.2% year-on-year increase in the average cost of manufacturing products or delivering services, a significant deceleration from 4.9% in Q4 of 2022.²
Sector-Specific Relief: Industrial & Services sector companies reported a 2.3% decline in their input costs, the first indication of disinflationary forces at play within these companies.

Surveyed Companies’ Reported Input Costs (YoY%)

^{1. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of 9/30/2023.
2. The Blackstone 3Q’23 survey of a subset of portfolio company CPOs referred to herein reflects input from 100 Blackstone portfolio companies (138 individual responses), largely within Blackstone’s Private Equity and Real Estate businesses (the “CPO Survey”). The 2Q’23, 1Q’23 and 4Q’22 CPO surveys reflect input from 107 portfolio companies (148 individual responses), 102 portfolio companies (131 individual responses) and 67 portfolio companies (59 individual responses), respectively. Certain portfolio companies have multiple procurement representatives and accordingly provided multiple responses per company to survey questions. Procurement representative responses from a single company in a single region are averaged when results are aggregated. Quarter-over-quarter presentations may reflect responses from different companies. The responding portfolio companies are not necessarily a representative sample of companies across Blackstone’s portfolio. The views expressed by responding portfolio companies do not necessarily reflect the views of Blackstone. Input costs include direct and indirect cost of operations including components, goods, services, energy, and G&A, and excluding human capital, wages, and benefits.}

Explosive Population Growth Bodes Well for Canada

Canada’s population is booming, with the fastest annual growth in over six decades.¹
Growth is driven by the country’s pro-immigration policy; ~60% of new immigrants hold a bachelor’s degree or higher.²
Rental housing and logistics supply has not kept up with increased demand, driving low vacancies of <2%.³

G7 annual population growth

G7 annual population growth bar chart

^{Government sources and Macrobond, as of 1/31/2023 (US, as of 12/31/2022 and UK, as of 12/31/2021). Population growth rate calculated as percentage change from prior year.

Note: The EU average is based on population data for France, Germany and Italy, weighted by each country’s share of the combined total.

1. Statistics Canada, as of 3/22/2023
2. StatCan, as of November 2022. Represents percentage of total immigrants aged 25 to 64 with a bachelor’s degree or higher from 2016-2021.
3. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, as of December 31, 2022 and CBRE, as of June 30, 2023. Housing figures reflect average vacancy for two-bedroom apartment units. Logistics figures reflect stock-weighted averages across Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.}

India’s Many Tailwinds

September 14, 2023

India’s GDP has grown 75% over the last decade and its equity market has returned more than 2.5x, outperforming most major global indices.
Shifting supply chains have also led to surging foreign direct investment in Indian manufacturing—up 76% year-on-year through 2022.
With the world’s largest population, a fast-growing middle class and an expanding manufacturing base, India is poised to continue outperforming.

10-year total return by equity market
(USD; indexed to 100 as of October 2013)

^{Macro indicators from United Nations and World Bank. FDI growth from S&P Global. Equity performance from Bloomberg, Macrobond, MSCI Inc., Standard & Poor’s and Stoxx as of September 12, 2023.}

Encouraging Signs in Fed’s Inflation Fight

August 14, 2023

US inflation is cooling rapidly.
In fact, 90% of July CPI is attributed to the 7.7% yoy increase in reported shelter costs.
But what Blackstone recognizes through its extensive real estate holdings is that the government data lags the market.
Strip out that lagging shelter data and the extent of headline and core CPI inflation deceleration becomes much clearer…

US headline and core CPI, ex-shelter (% yoy)

^{US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Macrobond, as of July 31, 2023.}

Explosive Growth in Data

July 31, 2023

Cloud computing, content creation and the AI revolution are driving rapid growth in data.
Between 2010 and 2022, data created, consumed and stored increased 49x.¹
This is fueling demand for US data centers, with more leasing in the last 18 months than in the previous six years combined.²

Global data created, consumed and stored (zettabytes)
Explosive Growth in Data Chart

^{1. IDC, as of December 31, 2021. 2021 and 2022 represent year-end estimates.
2. datacenterHawk, as of December 31, 2022. Demand based on total gross absorption in megawatts (electricity consumption).}

Not All Real Estate Is Created Equal

July 24, 2023

Concerns about commercial real estate overlook dramatic dispersion across subsectors.
US public data center REITs are up 19.4% year-to-date, given accelerated fundamentals, with apartments and logistics also up strongly.¹
Conversely, US office is seeing all-time high national availability of 26%,² reflected in office REITs down 16.2% year-to-date.

US Public REIT performance year-to-date

^{1. FTSE NAREIT, as of June 30, 2023. Reflects total return of publicly traded REITs by NAREIT subsector from December 30, 2022, to June 30, 2023.
2. CoStar, as of March 31, 2023. Based on Class A buildings greater than 100,000 sf, excluding owner-occupied buildings.}

An Attractive Environment for Private Credit

July 17, 2023

Higher base rates and wider spreads have been generating higher yields in non-investment grade private credit.
Returns have increased from 7.2% to 12.5% since 2021.

Yields for non-investment grade direct loans

^{Blackstone Credit Private Credit data as of June 2023. Includes upfront fees/OID and assumes average hold of 3 years. Assumptions based on market terms.}

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Opinions expressed reflect the current opinions of Blackstone as of the date of publishing only and are based on Blackstone’s opinions of the then-current market environment, which is subject to change. Certain information contained in the content discusses general market activity, industry or sector trends, or other broad-based economic, market or political conditions and should not be construed as research or investment advice.

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