Blackstone beats profit expectations as data-centre assets and deal making drive growth
Blackstone topped Q4 profit forecasts, raised US$71.5 billion in fresh capital and saw infrastructure valuations lifted by its QTS data-centre business.
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By Torontoer Staff
Blackstone reported fourth-quarter results that beat Wall Street expectations, driven by stronger deal-making activity and gains in its data-centre holdings. The firm raised US$71.5 billion of fresh capital in the quarter and now manages US$1.27 trillion in assets.
The results reflect a return of mergers and acquisitions activity in 2025, as easing interest rates and lower policy uncertainty encouraged financial investors and corporations to resume transactions.
Quarter at a glance
- Fresh capital raised: US$71.5 billion
- Assets under management: US$1.27 trillion
- Asset sales in quarter: US$957 million, up 59 per cent year over year
- Distributable earnings: US$2.2 billion, up 3 per cent from a year earlier
- Distributable earnings per share: US$1.75, above the US$1.54 analyst consensus
- Full-year distributable earnings per share: US$5.57, versus US$5.35 expected
Blackstone’s distributable earnings, the cash available to pay dividends, rose to US$2.2 billion in the quarter. That translated to US$1.75 per share, ahead of the LSEG consensus of US$1.54. For the full year the metric came in at US$5.57 per share, above expectations.
Data centres and infrastructure lifted valuations
Infrastructure funds were a bright spot, with valuations rising 8.4 per cent during the period. That performance was driven largely by QTS, the data-centre operator Blackstone acquired in 2021, which is benefitting from demand to support artificial intelligence workloads and other digital infrastructure needs.
Our focus on investing at massive scale in the build-out of digital and energy infrastructure continues to create significant value.
Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone CEO
Blackstone also holds QTS exposure through its real estate investment trust BREIT, which returned 8.1 per cent in 2025 as it recovered from outflows and valuation pressure that began in late 2022.
Deal making, purchases and commitments
The firm increased transaction activity in the quarter. It spent about US$42 billion on acquisitions, including Japanese engineering staffing firm TechnoPro, and committed roughly US$23 billion to larger deals such as medical device maker Hologic.
Blackstone’s asset sales totalled US$957 million in the three months to December, up 59 per cent from the same period in 2024, a sign of active portfolio recycling as markets warmed.
Market reaction and risk profile
The stock fell around 11 per cent last year alongside other large alternative asset managers, and analysts have cautioned that recent share-price weakness has left the name underappreciated in some corners of the market.
The stock had been "unloved,"
Piper Sandler analysts
Piper Sandler rated the shares neutral but said a pickup in transaction activity and performance fees should support results. The stock currently trades at about 23 times projected 2026 earnings, while projected fee growth is expected to be in the low double digits.
Regulatory and political noise has added periodic scrutiny. President Donald Trump threatened measures to restrict large institutional purchases of single-family homes, a market in which Blackstone has exposure. Analysts have largely shrugged off the risk. Oppenheimer analyst Chris Kotowski estimated the company’s exposure at about US$6 billion out of more than US$1.2 trillion, calling it "obviously trivial."
What this means going forward
Blackstone’s quarter underscores a broader trend in private capital, where large, established firms continue to raise sizable pools of capital while smaller and newer funds face tougher conditions. Continued demand for digital and energy infrastructure, driven in part by AI and cloud expansion, should remain a key growth driver.
Investors will watch whether transaction momentum translates into sustained performance fees and whether valuation gains in areas such as data centres persist as competition and macroeconomic conditions evolve.
For now, Blackstone’s combination of fresh capital inflows, active deal making and infrastructure exposure gives it room to deploy at scale, even as analysts debate the pace of fee growth and macro risks.
Blackstonefinancedata centresreal estatemergers and acquisitions
