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Blackstone chief executive Stephen Schwarzman took home more than $1.2bn last year amid record profits at the world’s largest alternative investment group, the company’s annual report on Friday said.
Schwarzman’s income marked a 20 per cent increase from the prior year, fuelled by rising dividend payments from his enormous Blackstone shareholding. The Blackstone co-founder owns nearly 20 per cent of the New York-based investment group and has for years received hundreds of millions of dollars annually in dividends paid out from its profits.
While Schwarzman’s cash income from Blackstone increased substantially, his net worth has plunged by more than $16bn from the highs the New York investment group reached in September. Blackstone shares have fallen nearly 30 per cent over the past year due to rising investor fears of growing financial strains on private markets.
Investors and analysts are expecting an increase in private credit defaults this year and are worried that large alternative investment groups may see investors pull money from their semi-liquid private funds.
Blackstone’s $82bn private credit fund Bcred raised $14bn in new investor money in 2025. Its inflows have exceeded rising net redemptions in recent months, but those figures could reverse if investor unease mounts further. Its private credit funds returned 8 per cent in 2025, down from 12 per cent the prior year due to falling interest rates.
Recent fears about the impact of AI on software companies, the area of the most activity in private markets over the past decade, have also weighed on the shares of Blackstone and rivals such as Blue Owl, Apollo Global, KKR and Ares Management, who have all seen their share prices fall sharply in 2026.
Nonetheless, Schwarzman’s income was bolstered by Blackstone’s financial performance in 2025. His dividend payments exceeded $1bn for the first time due to the company’s record profitability as it successfully began exiting large investments, including medical supplies giant Medline Industries and industrial group Legence.
Those profits, combined with near-record fundraising of $239bn, bolstered Blackstone’s fee earnings and allowed it to increase dividend payouts to shareholders by about 20 per cent.
Barring a collapse in Blackstone’s profits in the coming years, Schwarzman is in line to receive $1bn annually unless he were to sell his shares.
While the financier has spent heavily to refurbish a lavish £80mn country estate in Wiltshire, England in recent years, often drawing opposition from neighbours and local conservationists, he has not had to sell his Blackstone stock to fund the project. Schwarzman has not sold a Blackstone share since its 2007 initial public offering.
Jonathan Gray, Blackstone’s president, took home more than $300mn, with a majority coming from dividend income on his shares. Chief financial officer Michael Chae and private equity head Joseph Baratta took home $62.5mn and $81.6mn, respectively, though they saw their shareholdings in the investment group fall below $1bn in value due to its stock drop.
Executives at Blackstone can receive outsized income in good years because the group traditionally pays almost all of its profits to shareholders in dividends. Rivals such as KKR and Apollo Global have more stable dividend policies and retain some of their profits to fund future expansion.
Blackstone historically pays out at least 85 per cent of its profits to all of its shareholders, which include Schwarzman and many other top executives, such as Gray.
“Blackstone delivered record 2025 earnings that increased 20 per cent to the highest level in our 40-year history,” a spokesperson said. “The firm has a performance-driven compensation model that is built on long-term alignment with our investors.”