BlackRock posted a “historic” quarter as assets rose to $14tn supported by strong inflows across the business, including its alternatives platform.

The world’s largest asset manager recorded a record $698bn of net inflows for the full year, including $342bn in the fourth quarter.

This delivered nine per cent base fee growth across the year, with annualised organic base fee growth of 12 per cent in the fourth quarter. The firm said the increase reflected broad strength across iShares exchange traded funds, systematic active equities, private markets, outsourcing and cash.

“BlackRock enters 2026 with accelerating momentum across our entire platform, coming off the strongest year and quarter of net inflows in our history,” said Laurence Fink, chairman and chief executive.

Within private markets, BlackRock reported $12.7bn of net inflows during the quarter, with private credit accounting for $7.2bn.

“BlackRock is at the forefront of some of the largest new growth channels across the industry – from private markets to wealth and 401(k), to active ETFs, to private markets data, to digital assets and tokenisation,” Fink added. “We’re seeing excellent fundraising activity as we work toward our goal of $400bn in private markets fundraising by 2030.”

The fourth-quarter results also showed strong growth in private credit assets under management, largely driven by its acquisitions, including the HPS takeover. In 2024, the manager’s private credit assets stood at $32.4bn, rising to $145.4bn in 2025.