AI summary
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Blackstone CEO Schwarzman said that when he heard Jack Ma talking about AI on the bus, he had no idea. Now Blackstone has fully deployed related investments and applications, but it is also facing market skepticism about the data center rebound and the cooling of the AI craze.
Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman says the company is betting bigAye The starting point was a chance meeting more than ten years ago. He was sitting on a bus in China in 2015alibaba Founderjack ma Next, a conversation ultimately changed Blackstone’s investment direction.
Schwarzman said in an exclusive interview with Bloomberg TV that Jack Ma took the initiative to talk to him about AI at the time, “I really had no idea what he was talking about.” Schwarzman said: “He explained that this would be the most far-reaching technological change and would change the world.”
This chance encounter ultimately shaped Blackstone, an alternative investment firm that manages $1.3 trillion in assets, to now invest in AI across its businesses. Blackstone controls a US$200 billion data center business, is jointly building a cloud business with Google, holds equity interests in AI developers such as OpenAI, and also provides loans using Broadcom and NVIDIA chips as collateral. Additionally, Blackstone has invested in cooling equipment for power plants and data centers.
Blackstone has introduced AI into hundreds of entities under its control, primarily through the corporate consulting firm Odd with Anthropic. The company was founded by Blackstone and Anthropic, private equity firm Hellman & Friedman and other investors. AI is also gradually transforming Blackstone’s own operations, and models are now involved in evaluating investment proposals.
As the largest data center lessor in the United States, Blackstone has also been involved in sensitive political issues as society has become concerned about unemployment caused by AI and the threat of AI running out of control. The growing backlash against large, power-hungry data centers has thwarted some of Blackstone’s plans.
On the other hand, recent market trends suggest that some large investors are worried that the capital spending boom could turn from prosperity to recession. Institutional investors are also concerned that whether they are listed or unlisted investments, more and more funds are focused on the same theme that dominates the market. This challenge has become more acute as Blackstone and peers like Apollo Global Management, Brookfield Asset Management and KKR have increased their focus on AI.
Schwarzman cited examples of technology developments in the past, pointing out that new technologies sometimes take years to become profitable, but in the end they can bring huge rewards, especially for investors who invest early.
Schwarzman said: “In 1882, Edison invented the light bulb. To make it useful, you basically have to create a power grid first.” He said that this process took about 40 years.
He said, “Nobody knew about radio, nobody knew about television, and nobody thought about it when they were building the power grid. We’re just getting started.”
With only a few weeks left before the US midterm elections, Schwarzman, who has supported the Republican Party for many years, also talked about the current fiercely confrontational political environment.
He said, “I think it’s not easy, no matter what party you are in today, because there used to be a large group of centrist people in this country and I was one of them.” “Now everyone doesn’t listen to the other side, and I think that’s very unfortunate and challenging for the country. We need to get back to a balanced middle ground.”
Summary FAQ
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He recalled sitting next to Jack Ma while taking a bus in China in 2015. The second person took the initiative to talk about AI and emphasized that it will deeply change the world. Schwarzman didn’t quite understand this at the time, but this conversation became an important starting point for Blackstone’s later changes in AI.
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Blackstone has invested resources in data centers, cloud collaboration, AI company holdings and related financing. It has also incorporated AI into the operations of its subsidiaries, and used models to participate in the evaluation of investment proposals, showing that it is fully betting on AI from the infrastructure to the application level.
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The report notes that massive, high-power-consumption data centers operated by AI have triggered social backlash, disrupting some plans; At the same time, the market is also worried that the capital spending boom may reverse, and funds are overly concentrated on a single theme, which will increase investment risk.
