BlackRock is not slowing down. With $12.5 trillion in assets under management, the world’s biggest money manager is going hard on Bitcoin, AI, and European corporate credit.
They’re pushing deep into sectors that others are still figuring out, locking down infrastructure, loading up on energy, and snapping up the kind of private assets that come with sky-high fees and low public oversight.
At the center of this aggressive push is a deal by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), BlackRock’s recently acquired infrastructure arm, to buy Aligned Data Centers. This would rank as one of the largest data infrastructure buys of the year.
GIP is also pushing to finalize the acquisition of Allete Inc., a utility firm based in Minnesota.Regulators are close to approving the deal, which would give BlackRock a direct connection to energy that can feed the growing data center demand.
On top of that, they’ve been holding talks with AES Corp., a renewable power and utility giant with a $38 billion valuation. If that deal closes, it would become one of the largest utility takeovers ever recorded.
BlackRock pours billions into AI power and crypto ETFs
The timing isn’t random. AI needs insane levels of compute, and that compute runs on energy. BlackRock saw the writing on the wall when it shelled out $12.5 billion to buy GIP last year. CEO Larry Fink called it the start of a “golden age” for infrastructure. He wasn’t joking.
This year, GIP joined forces with Microsoft, MGX, and later Nvidia and xAI, to raise $30 billion for AI and energy infrastructure. With leverage, they expect that pool to support $100 billion worth of projects.
But AI isn’t the only game BlackRock is cornering. The firm’s Bitcoin ETF, known as IBIT, is about to smash the $100 billion asset mark. The fund, launched less than two years ago, charges a 0.25% fee and is already raking in over $240 million annually.
Analysts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart from Bloomberg Intelligence say it’s the most profitable ETF in BlackRock’s entire lineup, and that’s out of more than 1,000 funds. What’s crazy is how fast it got there. IBIT is on track to hit $100 billion five times faster than any ETF in history. It’s now shorthand for the entire crypto ETF category, pulling in both retail and institutional flows like a vacuum.
Private assets now make up only 5% of BlackRock’s total book, around $600 billion. But those assets bring in higher fees and are exactly what large strategic clients are after. Buying Aligned is a clear signal: BlackRock isn’t messing around with AI or data infrastructure. They want full ownership, control, and return.
BlackRock shifts focus to European bonds and trims projections
While crypto and AI dominate headlines, BlackRock is betting hard on European credit. In their latest fixed income report, they called European corporate bonds one of the “most compelling” options for global investors.
With yields close to 3%, the firm sees them as one of the few places left offering steady income without taking major risk.
“Companies still look in quite good shape overall,” said James Turner, co-head of global fixed income in EMEA. “There’s not many opportunities to find relatively safe yield at the moment.” Inflation forecasts are aligned with the ECB’s 2% target, growth is trending up, and credit markets continue pulling in capital.
BlackRock favors banks, utilities, tech, media, and telecoms; sectors they say are shielded from tariffs.
But not everything is pointing up. BofA Securities just dropped its price target for BlackRock stock (BLK) from $1,396 to $1,394, even though they kept their Buy rating.
The company’s market cap sits at $182.6 billion. The stock is up 45.7% in the last six months, now hovering near its 52-week high of $1,184.12. Still, InvestingPro says it looks overvalued, with earnings expectations having been revised down across multiple periods.
For Q3 2025, EPS was slashed from $12.41 to $11.17. Full-year 2025 projections fell to $47.38 from $48.59. Even with 15.45% revenue growth and a P/E ratio of 28.45x, analysts are starting to question the stock’s current price.
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Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/blackrock-holds-steady-in-bitcoin-ai-europe/
