Largest private equity firms in the U.S. 2024, by assets under management

Blackstone had the largest value of assets under management (AUM) than any other private equity firm in 2024, with a total of one trillion U.S. dollars. Apollo Global Management followed, with approximately 600 billion U.S. dollars in assets under management at that time. 

What is private equity?

Private equity is investments in firms that have not yet made an initial public offering. Because these companies are publicly traded, normal people cannot directly invest in them. For this reason, intermediaries such as the Carlyle Group are necessary both for investors to be able to access the market and for fundraising by private firms.

Reasons for investing in private equity

Many private companies can be quite large. Unicorns are private firms valued over one billion U.S. dollars, many of which are promising investments. A subset of private equity is venture capital, which focuses on smaller firms with high growth potential. These firms are often in competitive industries, so the risk are high. However, the hope of large returns for being early investors brings billions of U.S. dollars in venture capital investment every year, a significant portion of the private equity volume.