BlackRock

In 1988, eight people, Larry Fink, Rob Kapito, Sue Wagner, Barbara Novick, Ben Golub, Hugh Frater, Ralph Schlosstein, and Keith Anderson, founded BlackRock with the mission “to create a better financial future for our clients.” In its early years the firm operated under Blackstone and was known primarily as a boutique fixed income manager.⁠[1][1][1][1]

In 1995, after months of negotiations with Blackstone’s leadership, Fink turned to Lazard banker Ken Wilson to broker a purchase agreement with PNC Bank. The merger with PNC brought BlackRock expanded capabilities and distribution.⁠[1][1][1]

In October 1999, BlackRock went public with broad employee ownership, and the New York Stock Exchange invited its founders to ring the opening bell.⁠[1]

In January 2005, BlackRock completed its acquisition of State Street Research (SSR), significantly increasing its assets under management that year.⁠[2]

In January 2006, over breakfast at Three Guys, a restaurant on New York’s Upper East Side, Fink and Merrill Lynch CEO Stanley O’Neal decided to merge Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) with BlackRock. The deal closed on September 29, 2006: Merrill Lynch contributed the MLIM business to BlackRock in exchange for 52,395,082 shares of common stock and 12,604,918 shares of Series A non-voting preferred stock, and after closing owned 45% of the voting common stock; PNC’s ownership fell from about 69% to about 34%. The deal doubled BlackRock’s assets under management to more than $1 trillion, reaching $1.125 trillion at the end of 2006, and greatly expanded its global reach and its business with retail clients.⁠[3][3][2][2][2][2][3][2][3]

On December 1, 2009, BlackRock acquired Barclays Global Investors (BGI) from Barclays Bank PLC for shares valued at $8.53 billion at closing and $6.65 billion in cash, adding more than 3,500 employees. BGI was known for indexed and quantitative investing and pioneered the iShares exchange-traded fund platform; the deal significantly expanded BlackRock’s index fund business. At the end of 2009, BlackRock managed $3.346 trillion in assets and was the largest publicly traded investment management firm; at the time, Merrill Lynch held about 34.2% of its capital stock, PNC about 24.5%, and Barclays about 19.8%.⁠[4][4][4][4][3][4][4][4][4]

On May 15, 2020, a subsidiary of PNC completed a secondary offering of 31,628,573 shares of BlackRock common stock at $420 per share, and on the same day BlackRock repurchased 2,650,857 shares from PNC at $414.96 per share, completing PNC’s exit from its entire stake; PNC was no longer a related party of BlackRock.⁠[5][5][5]

In February 2021, BlackRock completed its acquisition of Aperio, adding $41 billion of assets under management; in August 2023 it acquired Kreos Capital, adding $2 billion; and in May 2024 it acquired SpiderRock Advisors, adding $4 billion.⁠[6]

In January 2024, BlackRock launched the iShares Bitcoin Trust (ticker IBIT), a Bitcoin exchange-traded product, with a fund inception date of January 5, 2024. As of October 7, 2026, the fund had net assets of about $67.3 billion. As of the end of 2025, BlackRock’s digital asset products totaled $78 billion, with $35 billion of net inflows that year; they included Bitcoin exchange-traded products listed in the US, Canada, Europe, the UK, and Australia, and an Ethereum exchange-traded product listed in the US.⁠[7][7][6][6]

On January 12, 2024, BlackRock signed a transaction agreement with Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP). The deal closed on October 1, 2024: a newly formed holding company, BlackRock Funding, Inc., was renamed BlackRock, Inc. and became the group’s ultimate parent, while the former listed company was renamed BlackRock Finance, Inc. and became its wholly owned subsidiary; shareholders’ shares were converted one for one, and the ticker remained BLK. The new holding company then acquired all interests in GIP for $3 billion in cash and about 12 million new shares, with about 30% of the consideration deferred and to be issued in stock. The GIP transaction added $70 billion of assets under management to BlackRock.⁠[8][8][8][8][8][8][6]

On March 3, 2025, BlackRock completed its acquisition of the private markets data provider Preqin for £2.5 billion (about $3.2 billion) in cash, planning to integrate its data and research tools with the workflows of Aladdin and eFront.⁠[6][6]

On July 1, 2025, BlackRock completed its acquisition of the entire business and assets of the global credit investment manager HPS Investment Partners, with substantially all consideration paid in Class B-2 common units of its subsidiary BlackRock Saturn Subco; at the same time, BlackRock Finance, GIP, and HPS became wholly owned subsidiaries of that subsidiary. The HPS transaction added $118 billion of assets under management. In September 2025, BlackRock also acquired ElmTree Funds, adding $3 billion of assets under management.⁠[6][6][6][6]

As of December 31, 2025, BlackRock had $14.0 trillion in assets under management and about 24,900 employees in more than 30 countries, serving clients in more than 100 countries. Total revenue for 2025 was $24.216 billion, and net income attributable to BlackRock was $5.553 billion. iShares exchange-traded fund assets totaled $5.5 trillion, with exchange-traded fund net inflows of $527 billion for the year; private credit assets totaled $145 billion, and infrastructure assets $112 billion.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][6][6]

On January 13, 2026, the Management Development and Compensation Committee of BlackRock’s board adopted the Executive Carry Program, under which selected senior executives (other than the CEO) are eligible to receive a percentage of the carry distributions from the company’s flagship private markets funds.⁠[9][9]

On April 27, 2026, the secondhand marketplace VintedVintedVinted is a consumer-to-consumer (C2C) secondhand marketplace headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania. Founded in 2008, it began with secondhand clothing and later expanded into categories such as electronics and collectibles, and built its own shipping (Vinted Go) and payments (Vinted Pay) businesses. In 2019 it became Lithuania’s first startup valued at more than €1 billion, and a secondary share sale in April 2026 corresponded to an equity valuation of €8 billion.Open the full entry completed a €880 million secondary share transaction at an equity valuation of €8 billion, led by EQT, Schroders Capital, and Teachers’ Venture GrowthTeachers' Venture GrowthTeachers’ Venture Growth (TVG) is the late-stage venture capital and growth equity investment department of Canada’s Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan focused on technology companies; it was formerly Teachers’ Innovation Platform, set up in 2019, and has invested in companies including SpaceX, FTX, Vinted, and Harvey.Open the full entry; funds and accounts managed by BlackRock participated as new investors.⁠[10][10][10]

On July 15, 2026, BlackRock reported its second-quarter results: as of June 30, 2026, its assets under management reached $15.3 trillion, with $868 billion of net inflows over the past twelve months and record first-half net inflows of $321 billion; iShares assets exceeded $6 trillion, roughly doubling in three years.⁠[11][11][11]

On October 7, 2026, the New York retail proprietary trading startup Vest LabsVest LabsVest Labs is a New York–based trading technology startup that operates Vest Markets, a 24/7 venue for perpetual futures on stocks, indices, commodities, foreign exchange, and crypto assets, and offers “prop trading” accounts that let retail traders who pass an evaluation trade with company capital and share in the profits.Open the full entry announced a $13 million seed round led by Portal VenturesPortal VenturesPortal Ventures is a US venture capital firm founded by Evan Fisher in 2022 that focuses on the pre-seed stage in blockchain and crypto, with its main strategy being to lead first checks before product-market fit; in 2026, it led the $13 million seed round of the retail proprietary trading startup Vest Labs.Open the full entry; the individual backers included senior executives at BlackRock.⁠[12][12][12]

BlackRock manages equity, fixed income, private markets, alternatives, digital assets, currencies and commodities, and money market assets for institutional and retail clients, through products including open-end and closed-end mutual funds, iShares exchange-traded funds, separate accounts, and collective trust funds; it also provides technology and subscription services including Aladdin, Aladdin Wealth, eFront, Preqin, and Cachematrix. Its clients include pension plans, charities, foundations, and endowments; official institutions such as central banks and sovereign wealth funds; and insurers, financial institutions, and retail intermediaries. The company says it does not engage in proprietary trading that could conflict with the interests of its clients.⁠[6][6][6][6][6]

BlackRock also holds minority investments in a number of fintech and digital distribution companies, including Securitize, Circle, Upvest, Avaloq, Envestnet, Acorns, and iCapital; its cash management products include tokenized liquidity offerings.⁠[6][6]

BlackRock is an independent public company with no single controlling shareholder, and more than 80% of its board consists of independent directors. As of October 2026, Larry Fink was chairman and CEO and Rob Kapito was president; the company’s headquarters are in leased offices at 50 Hudson Yards in New York, and about 60% of its employees are outside the United States.⁠[6][13][13][6][6]

As of February 2026, BlackRock was defending a lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of 13 states in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas against BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard. The plaintiffs allege that the three companies conspired to artificially suppress coal supply in violation of antitrust law, and four states are also pursuing claims under state consumer protection laws over statements on BlackRock fund websites; in 2025, the court largely denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss. Company management said it did not expect the aggregate liability from related regulatory and legal matters to have a material effect on the company’s financial condition.⁠[6][6][6][6]

BlackRock: Official website: https://www.blackrock.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[6]

iShares: Official website: https://www.ishares.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[7]