BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, announced a significant surge in its assets under management (AUM), reaching a new high of $12.53 trillion in the second quarter of 2025.
This AUM growth, up from $10.65 trillion last year, is primarily driven by a global market rally, fuelled by the prospect of trade deals and interest-rate cuts from the US Federal Reserve, brushing aside earlier tariff-related jitters.
Market optimism overcomes earlier jitters
The shares of the company rose 1.1 per cent in premarket trading after the announcement, reported Bloomberg.
The second quarter witnessed a sharp reversal from early April’s market turbulence, led by the US trade and geopolitical policy concerns that battered confidence and fuelled recession fears.
A strong labour market, healthy consumer spending and hopes for an easing of trade tensions by President Donald Trump pushed major US indices to all-time highs through the end of June.
The benchmark S&P 500 index rose 10.57 per cent during this period after escaping bear market territory.
Long-term net inflows fall
BlackRock’s assets under management rose to $12.53 trillion in the quarter ended June 30, from $10.65 trillion last year.
Despite the overall AUM growth, the company’s long-term net inflows fell to $46 billion in the quarter, down by 9.8 per cent.
As equities rallied, fixed-income products saw outflows of $4.66 billion, BlackRock told Bloomberg.
The company’s total revenue, most of which is earned as a percentage of assets under management, rose to $5.42 billion from $4.81 billion a year ago.
Treasury market turbulence, weak dollar
The quarter also saw an increased scrutiny of US treasuries. The benchmark 10-year yield recorded one of its biggest weekly increases since 2001 following the “Liberation Day” shock.
BlackRock’s fixed-income executives expressed concerns about the potential impact of ballooning US debt on appetite for longer-dated treasuries and the dollar, which recorded its worst first-half performance this year since 1973.
However, a weaker dollar tends to boost returns from foreign-currency assets, contributing a positive foreign exchange impact of $171.52 billion in the quarter, compared with a $35.45 billion downward revision in the prior year.
The “Big Beautiful Bill” recently passed by the Trump administration is projected to add over $3 trillion to the country’s $36.2 trillion debt, putting more pressure on treasuries and the dollar.
Blackrock’s shift towards private markets and tech
The low-cost investments leader is actively pivoting towards private markets and tech-enabled portfolio solutions to offset slowing growth in exchange-traded funds caused by intense competition and fee compression as the market matures.
Private markets saw inflows of $6.82 billion in the quarter. The New York-based firm aims for its private markets and technology businesses to account for 30 per cent or more of its total revenue by 2030, up from 15 per cent in 2024.
As part of this push, BlackRock last month announced plans to include private assets in its retirement plans, a segment that manages over half of the company’s total money.
This move mirrors similar initiatives taken by its peer, State Street, which also launched a similar offering along with alternative asset manager Apollo in April, the news agency reported.
Technology services revenue rose 26.3 per cent to $499 million, reflecting the first full quarter of data provider Preqin, which BlackRock bought in a $3.2 billion deal last year. The deal closed on March 3, 2025.