Blackstone CFO: Corporate Earnings Boom to Fuel AI and Infrastructure Growth

Blackstone just made a bold call: the next couple of years could bring the strongest corporate earnings growth America has seen in a generation — and AI, infrastructure, and private capital are the engines behind it.

What Happened

Speaking at a financial services conference, Blackstone CFO Michael Chae laid out a strikingly optimistic view of where corporate profits and capital markets are headed. He pointed to the second quarter of this year as producing the fastest S&P earnings growth in five years, and said current projections have 2026 shaping up as the strongest year for S&P earnings growth in 25 years — excluding the sharp rebound periods that followed the 2008 financial crisis and COVID-19.

Chae credited two big forces: massive investment in digital and energy infrastructure, and companies only just starting to unlock AI-driven productivity gains. Notably, he said this infrastructure buildout is still smaller relative to GDP than prior investment booms, meaning there's room to run. Blackstone's own portfolio companies have expanded profit margins by roughly 700 basis points over the past four decades, now sitting in the high-30% range.

Where the Money Is Going

Chae named the areas Blackstone considers the sweet spots right now: AI-related infrastructure, power and electrification, life sciences, private-market liquidity solutions, secondaries, private investment-grade credit, and international bets in India and Japan. He said a remarkable 70% of Blackstone's largest investments over the past 12 months landed in these categories — a sign of where the firm believes the smart money is flowing.

He also emphasized that scale matters more than ever. As global markets hunger for more capital to fund growth, firms with broad investment platforms — like Blackstone — are positioned to capture outsized opportunities in fundraising, deployment, and eventual realizations (cashing out on investments).

Why This Framing Matters

This isn't just Wall Street cheerleading. Blackstone manages hundreds of billions of dollars, and its read on the economy often previews where institutional capital is headed next. When a firm this size says AI productivity gains are still in early innings and infrastructure spending has more room to grow, it's effectively signaling confidence to pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and private wealth clients who are deciding where to park money for the next decade.

The bet on private credit and infrastructure also reflects a broader shift in finance: more deals are happening outside traditional public markets and banks, with firms like Blackstone filling the gap. That trend has been building for years, but comments like these suggest it's accelerating, not slowing down.