KKR Raises $28B in Fresh Capital in 2025’s Q4

KKR capped a record-breaking year for capital raising by growing its assets under management in the fourth quarter to nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars.

The private equity giant, which is celebrating its 50-year anniversary in 2026, raised $28 billion of new capital in the fourth quarter and $129 billion in 2025, its highest-ever annual total, the firm announced Thursday. Assets under management closed the fourth quarter at $744 billion, a 17 percent year-over-year increase.

Scott Nuttall, co-CEO of KKR, said the growth achieved in 2025 reflects its nimbleness through the firm’s history of navigating many different market cycles.

“Today’s outcomes are the result of decisions made years ago around portfolio construction, deployment pacing and just overall discipline,” Nuttall said. “We are seeing much greater bifurcation across our industry. It is becoming harder to generalize about asset classes and easier to distinguish between firms that are well positioned and those that are not.” 

Commercial real estate investments comprise 14 percent of assets under management, according to KKR. Assets under management for infrastructure investments have risen to around $100 billion compared to $17 billion five years ago, according to Nuttall. 

KKR’s earnings after taxes and expenses finished at $1.105 billion, or $1.16 per share, in the fourth quarter, a slight drop from $1.125 billion, or $1.18 per share, reported in the year-ago period. Quarterly fee-related earnings rose 15 percent year-over-year to $1 billion.

The firm leaned heavily in the credit space in 2025 with $44 billion of capital deployed throughout the year, a 14 percent increase from 2024. It raised a record $68 billion for its credit business in the fourth quarter.

Concurrent with its earnings report, KKR also announced a $1.4 billion acquisition of Arctos Partners, an institutional investor in professional sports franchises. KKR said the deal will help scale originations in its stadium-adjacent real estate business. 

Despite its recent growth, KKR’s stock has fallen nearly 25 percent over the past month and 12 percent in the last five days during a period of headwinds in the broader private credit space. 

Nuttall stressed the volatility is a “market overreaction” that has occurred in the past and presents solid market opportunities for long-term investors.

“A lot of our larger shareholders have bought our stock and done incredibly well when this kind of thing happens,” Nuttall said. “The market overreacts habitually to anxiety as it relates to our sector.” 

Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com.