Blackstone Reports $62B Capital Inflows in Q1 2025, Warns About ‘Turbulent’ Tariffs

New year, same formula for Stephen Schwarzman’s Blackstone (BX). 

The private equity giant reported it raised $62 billion in capital inflows in the first quarter of 2025, its highest levels in three years, and noted on a first-quarter earnings call Thursday that it has raised $200 billion over the last 12 months. 

“Blackstone reported strong first-quarter results,” said Schwarzman, Blackstone’s chairman, co-founder and CEO. “I’d say that $62 billion in a quarter is worth noting.” 

Additionally, Blackstone’s total assets under management (AUM) hit $1.2 trillion, up 10 percent year-over-year. Fee-earning AUM increased 10 percent, which lifted management fees to $1.9 billion in the first quarter, while fee-related earnings rose 9 percent year-over-year to $1.3 billion, according to Michael Chae, vice chairman and chief financial officer. 

But despite the rosy financial outlook for the firm, both Schwarzman, and Jonathan Gray, Blackstone’s president and chief operating officer, noted that President Donanld Trump’s tariff policy has created uncertainty for the greater investment community in the U.S. and global capital markets system.  

Schwarzman emphasized Blackstone delivered results amid “a turbulent market backdrop,” which he said has “only intensified since the quarter ended,” notably the stock market roller coaster and supply-side chaos stemming from Trump’s ad hoc tariff policy. 

“Uncertainty around tariffs, and their potential impact on economic growth and inflation, has dramatically impacted investor sentiment,” said Schwarzman  “It’s too early to assess the full implications of tariffs, which depend on the outcome of unprecedented multilateral negotiations with perhaps over 100 countries around the world.”  

Gray noted that “despite challenges of the current environment” the firm holds several investment strategies to weather the storm, notably a $475 billion corporate and real estate credit business that saw $113 billion of inflows over the past 12 months.   

 “Driving these inflows, as always, was performance,” said Gray, who singled out direct lending, asset-based finance, leveraged loans and real estate high-yield lending for powering the firm’s multiple credit strategies.

 Gray highlighted the first-quarter performance of BREIT — Blackstone’s non-listed real estate investment trust — which he said has generated an annualized return of 9.4 percent for its largest share class since it opened its doors eight years ago, which he noted is effectively double the return of the public REIT index has given investors in that same period.  

“BREIT has continued to perform remarkably well through volatile markets with its best quarter of returns in 18 months in (the first quarter),” said Gray. 

Chae added in his remarks that the firm’s data center portfolio benefited Blackstone’s overall real estate business, which saw its core-plus funds appreciate by 1.2 percent in the first quarter, while the Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies (BREDS) opportunistic funds also increased slightly, supported by positive cash flow growth. 

But it was Schwarzman who highlighted the true nature — and potential benefit — that tariffs will present for Blackstone’s commercial  real estate business. The chairman noted that Trump’s tariffs are likely to drive up construction costs and further reduce new supply, which is supportive of rising real estate values so long as recession conditions remain at bay. 

Schwarzman added that supply in Blackstone’s two largest property sectors, U.S. logistics and apartments, have already fallen to their lowest levels in more than a decade, and that the firm invested $36 billion in the first quarter alone into areas “where we have strong convictions.” 

“We do some of our best work in times of volatility, and I have no doubt that will happen once again,” said Schwarzman. 

Brian Pascus can be reached at bpascus@commercialobserver.con