Blackstone Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Blackstone second quarter 2026 investor call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. If you require operator assistance, please press star zero. If you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one. If you are using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Weston Tucker, head of shareholder relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Katie, and good morning, and welcome to Blackstone's second quarter conference call. Joining today are Steve Schwarzman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, John Gray, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Michael Chae, Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer. Earlier this morning, we issued a press release and slide presentation, which are available on our website. We expect to file our 10-Q report in a few weeks. I'd like to remind everyone that today's call may include forward-looking statements which are uncertain and may differ from actual results materially. We do not undertake any duty to update these statements. For our discussion of some of the factors that could affect results, please see the risk factors section of our 10-K. We'll also refer to non-GAAP measures, and you'll find reconciliations in the press release on the shareholders page of our website. Also note that nothing on this call constitutes an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase an interest in any Blackstone fund. The audio cast is copyrighted material of Blackstone and may not be duplicated without consent. On results, we reported GAAP net income for the quarter of $2.4 billion. Distributable earnings were $2 billion, or $1.52 per common share, and we declared a dividend of $1.29 per share, which will be paid to holders of record as of August 3rd. And with that, I'll now turn the call over to Steve.

Good morning, and thank you for joining our call. Laxman reported outstanding second quarter results with distributable earnings up 26% year-over-year to $2 billion, as Weston mentioned, approximately the same rate of earnings growth we delivered in the first quarter. Few related earnings grew 22% year-over-year in the second quarter, while net realizations rose 27% despite the geopolitical volatility. Total inflows reached nearly $70 billion in the quarter and over $260 billion for the last 12 months, lifting assets under management 11% year over year to a record $1.35 trillion. The most significant driver of these strong results continues to be the large-scale investments we've made in artificial intelligence-related areas, including data centers, energy and power, and the frontier AI companies themselves. These investments are leading to standout results in numerous strategies across the firm and are supporting our momentum in fundraising, deployment, As we start to monetize some of the substantial gains we've been building in these areas in performance revenues. Over the past several years, we've been regularly sharing our views on the transformative potential of AI and how we've been positioning the firm to benefit from the paradigm shift that is underway. Blackstone has become one of the largest private capital providers In the AI ecosystem, a position that gives our investors unique access to the remarkable opportunities emerging in this area and allows them to share directly in the extraordinary potential upside. Many of these opportunities, of course, can't be replicated in the public markets. We built the largest data center development business in the world. and demand for compute is accelerating. We became one of the most active private investors in power and utilities and energy demand is significantly rising. And we invested directly in some of the fastest growing private companies in the world, including Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceX. And we're now creating new companies and platforms that we believe will play a critical role in the advancement of AI, including four in the second quarter alone. First, we teamed with Google to build a new AI cloud provider powered by their TPU chips, investing up to $5 billion initially. We think this business has the potential to scale quite significantly over time as the first NeoCloud for TPUs. Second, we partnered with Anthropic to form a company focused on driving enterprise adoption of their AI-powered solutions, helping firms to realize the vast potential of this technology. Third, we joined Broadcom and another manager to create a financing platform in support of Broadcom's deployment of large-scale AI compute for their end customers. The platform provided $35 billion initially to deliver one gigawatt of compute, representing the largest private credit investment in history, with much more to come. And fourth, alongside these partnerships with leading AI companies, we launched a Blackstone REIT, known as BXDC, something public market investors can access directly to acquire stabilized, newly constructed data centers. The $2 billion offering represented the largest blind pool REIT IPO in history, a testament to our leadership position in this sector. The market for long-term ownership of stabilized data centers is nascent today, but we think it could grow to $1 trillion over time and beyond, representing massive potential for BXDC. In addition to these new ventures, we're seeing extraordinary momentum in our data center platform, which has grown to $185 billion of total value, including facilities under construction, up from $130 billion at the start of just this year. We expect to lease over three times more capacity this year than any other year in our history. If we execute on our pipeline, our data center platform could double over the next few years. Growth of this type, underpinned by long duration leases with some of the highest quality and most credit worthy customers in the world, is a compelling illustration of what can be created in private markets. and while it's still early in the lifecycle of our data center investments, as one indication of their significant embedded value, we recently sold our stake in a collection of fully leased assets that are still under construction at a multi-billion dollar gain. Meanwhile, in energy, we continue to actively invest to help meet rising global demand, including in utilities, utility services, renewables, pipelines, LNG, and electrical equipment across both equity and debt. We've generated highly differentiated returns for LPs in these areas as well, as highlighted by the performance of our energy-focused strategies. Last week in credit, we announced a $5.3 billion investment for leading energy infrastructure company Williams to support multiple development projects to power data centers. This investment provides yet another example of Fortune 500 companies looking to private markets for customized long-duration capital solutions. I'm sharing these examples Thank you very much. We're mindful of the potential for excessive exuberance in this area, and we've carefully chosen our spots, leveraging our scale and knowledge advantage to build conviction. We focused on identifying compelling risk-adjusted returns with outside-upside potential, and in many cases, meaningful downside protections. On the societal implications of AI, I've been extensively engaged on this topic since I made a major donation in 2018 to MIT establishing the Schwarzman College of Computing. And this includes a focus on AI safety. I've been spending a lot of time with leaders in the industry, and various policymakers think about how to address this critical issue while also preserving the advancement of America's AI leadership. In addition, the firm is working closely with our portfolio companies, including our data center businesses, to address the workforce, environmental and community implications of development. Through the creation of union jobs, workforce training, water-free cooling systems, expanded power generation, and significant local economic investment, our goal is for these projects to contribute to the success of the communities we serve. Overall, I believe the potential change from AI has precedent The Industrial Revolution and the Commercialization of Electricity Each time in history there has been this type of dramatic change, economies have adjusted, and the standard of living for virtually everyone in society is improved over time. We believe the future impact of AI will echo these previous periods, but with more rapid implementation, and Complexity. Major change of this type also creates anxiety due to the uncertainties of how the technology will evolve and its ultimate impact. We will need to monitor these developments as a society and course correct when necessary. In closing, we are in the early days of what I believe will be the most consequential transformation in industry and markets in a generation. Private capital will play a vital role in these advancements and Blackstone is the leading firm. I have great optimism for what's in store for our investors and for shareholders Our stock is on sale today, and we believe it represents one of the most inexpensive ways to participate in this extraordinary megatrend. With that, I'll turn it over to John.