Asset management giants are raising record sums, including for impact and the energy transition

The biggest are getting bigger. 

Apollo Global Management, TPG, KKR and other publicly traded asset management firms touted record fundraising hauls on their year-end earnings calls as they amass huge war chests to deploy towards global investment opportunities, including renewable energy and resilient infrastructure. 

Apollo Global Management, for example, is closing in on $1 trillion in assets under management. Apollo and others are counting on the adoption of a “total portfolio approach” by big institutional investors to shift more assets from public equities to alternatives, including private equity. Next up: the competition among private-markets firms for shares of the $14 trillion 401(k) retirement market. 

On this week’s calls, the big private equity players generally downplayed impact and energy transition themes, perhaps in a nod to the current political environment. Though a small part of their overall portfolios, the firms’ impact and climate funds appear to be performing well and remain popular with LPs as long-term growth strategies. 

The insatiable demand for electricity continues to fuel investments in renewable energy and resilient infrastructure. Policy headwinds in the US have not stopped regions from Europe to India to Africa from racing to adopt solar, wind, EVs and industrial electrification to rid themselves of dependence on foreign oil and gas, reduce energy costs and clean their air. 

“Rising demand in the power and electrification ecosystem is creating enormous deal flow,” Blackstone’s Jon Gray said on a call with analysts. 

Climate fundraising

TPG said its $31 billion Rise impact platform once again outperformed its other strategies in “net accrued performance,” appreciating by 12.8% in 2025. The impact platform, which includes the TPG Rise and Rise Climate funds, the Global South fund and TPG Next, added $4.5 billion in new capital in 2025. After deploying some $4.2 billion, it starts 2026 with nearly $9.6 billion in dry powder. 

New York-based KKR is eyeing a $20 billion fundraise for its next global infrastructure fund. It raised $2.7 billion towards its Global Climate Transition strategy launched in 2023, including from Spanish bank BBVA and Temasek, Singapore’s state-owned investment fund.

That would rival the record $20 billion Brookfield Asset Management raised in October for its second global energy transition fund. Brookfield’s fundraise was buoyed by big institutional investors including the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund Norges, California’s CalPERS pension fund, the UAE’s $30 billion Alterra climate fund and Temasek.

“Demand for power continues to accelerate globally, driven by electrification, AI growth, and energy security,” Brookfield’s Bruce Flatt said on the company’s earnings call last week. 

With a $5.6 billion final close in 2024, Blackstone has committed 80% of its fourth private equity energy transition fund. The New York-headquartered firm is eyeing a first close this spring for its next energy transition vehicle. 

Blackstone last August committed $5 billion to build eight new data centers in Aragon, Spain, that will be powered by renewable energy and use a cooling system that does not consume water. 

In another recent deal, KKR last week said it would invest some $600 million in Australian renewables developer HMC’s Energy Transition Platform, including a 5.7 gigawatt pipeline of battery energy storage and wind development projects in Australia. A joint venture between KKR and German energy conglomerate RWE is developing and operating wind farms off the coast of the UK. 

Clean energy developers and investors get wind back in their sails

Holding companies 

As exits have lagged, private equity firms increasingly hold on to the companies they acquire for longer. Some are starting to leave behind the old PE playbook of quick profits through layoffs and restructuring. According to Pitchbook, private equity firms’ average holding period before exits has increased to 7.1 years, up from 4.6 years in 2006.  

KKR established its “strategic holdings” unit at the beginning of 2024 to hold companies for longer periods – and on its own balance sheet, as opposed to in its funds.

The firm said it expected the strategic holdings unit to grow to $350 million in operating earnings this year. The companies include 1-800 Contacts, Arnott’s Biscuits, Atlantic Aviation and Viridor Limited, an energy infrastructure company. 

“What’s driving it is we’ve got approximately 20 businesses now that sit in Strategic Holdings, all generating different levels of growth and free cash flow,” said KKR’s Robert Lewin. “Many of those investments were originated five, six, seven, eight years ago with bigger capital structures at the time.”

Aren LeeKong, founder and CEO of Nine Dean, a new permanent holding company launched with an anchor commitment from the Ford Foundation, told ImpactAlpha last year, “Many large private equity platforms already have long-dated funds or a balance sheet designed to hold assets for decades.”

“The logical next step is increased focus on the broader elements that make people the most important asset of any company— including fair wages, quality healthcare, and strong benefits,” he said (disclosure: Ford Foundation also is an investor in ImpactAlpha).

Higher quality jobs could be an impact silver lining as PE firms hold companies longer

LP flows 

TPG, like other big publicly listed investment firms, took in record amounts of investment even as overall private market fundraising stalled and the firms’ stock price lagged. Addressing the divergent fortunes, TPG’s Jim Coulter pointed to LP flows as the ultimate barometer of the firm’s momentum, and projected TPG would raise another $50 billion this year. 

He said LPs had done their homework on questions of valuation and private equity performance. “These issues have been thought about in the LP community for a while.” He advised analysts, “Watch the LP flows as a way of getting some comfort on that.”

TPG Rise and Clean Growth Fund hit climate fundraising milestones

TPG’s impact platform includes both the Rise Climate Funds and the Rise Funds, which invests in education, financial inclusion, health and other sectors. The climate funds had a net IRR of 15%, reflecting the performance of the inaugural 2021 vintage Rise Climate Fund I. The other climate funds were launched only last year. 

TPG expects to clinch fundraising for its Rise Climate Fund II this year. It has already amassed some $6 billion towards a goal of $8 billion to $10 billion. 

The $2.7 billion Rise Fund III, which invests in education, financial inclusion, health and other sectors, delivered a net IRR of 23%, more than double the average returns of the two earlier Rise funds. 

Power and utility services are also a key theme for TPG. This week, TPG Rise Climate picked up a majority stake in Sabre Industries from Blackstone’s Energy Transition Partners for an undisclosed sum. Sabre supplies overhead steel poles and other utility transmission equipment to support more reliable grids. TPG’s Steven Mandel said Sabre’s offerings strengthen infrastructure “at a time when reliability and resilience are more critical than ever.”

In November, Rise Climate took a stake in Pike Corp., a 70-year old company that provides engineering, construction and transmission services for US utilities. The Quebec pension fund La Caisse also invested in Pike. 

“Given the global scope of our strategy and the unprecedented growth in energy demand, our opportunity set continues to expand,” said Winkelried.