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Michael Arougheti

Co-Founder, CEO & Director, Ares Management Corporation

Search every verified Michael Arougheti interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Michael Arougheti, co-founder and CEO of Ares Management, discussed the firm's second-quarter 2026 results in late July and early August, highlighting record quarterly fundraising of approximately $36 billion in gross capital and $170 billion in dry powder. He attributed client inflows to consistent fund performance and noted that Ares raised its third Pathfinder fund at an $8.5 billion hard cap in a first and final close, which he described as unprecedented in the firm's history. On the earnings call, he also cited a 100 basis point year-over-year margin increase partly driven by AI deployment across the enterprise, and said the firm was seeing early benefits in capacity and margin improvement from using proprietary data in decision-making. In media appearances, Arougheti addressed concerns about private credit, stating that non-accruals in Ares' direct lending business were below 2%, cash flow growth was around 10%, and fundamental performance matched underwriting. He characterized narratives of private credit collapse as overstated and attributed redemption activity in partially liquid funds to investor psychology rather than underlying stress. He also discussed AI-related digital infrastructure demand, noting over $750 billion in capex from hyperscalers and widening spreads, and commented on private equity, saying the system was undergoing a transition rather than broken, with pent-up demand for exits driven by aging assets. At a June conference, he discussed sports investment opportunities, saying professional ownership could transform assets through data and best practices.

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Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“Our non-accruals across the direct lending business right now are inside of 2%. That is well below the historical averages. Our cash flow growth is plus or minus 10% as I said and that's been consistent. We are seeing healthy interest coverage, very low loans to value. So the fundamental performance is exactly what was underwritten.”

“We're obviously deploying AI across the entire enterprise, we're seeing significant efficiency, we had a 100 basis point margin increase in the quarter year-over-year and we've guided the street to expect 0 to 150 basis points per annum, a fair amount of that is technology efficiency that's getting created, re-underwriting processes, re-underwriting systems, and we are seeing uplift that is also translating into incr”

“I think with regard to the digital capex, obviously there's 750 plus billion dollars of capex demand coming from the hyperscalers. That is a large amount of capital. It's beginning to, you know, quote unquote overwhelm the markets and that's showing up in two ways. One, spreads are widening which is not necessarily a bad thing and people want to get paid more for the risk that they're taking and it's probably slowing”

“If you look at our direct lending business, which is kind of where I think people are focused, our non-accruals across the direct lending business right now are inside of 2%. That is well below the historical averages. Our cash flow growth is plus or minus 10% as I said and that's been consistent. We are seeing healthy interest coverage, very low loans to value. So the fundamental performance is exactly what was unde”

“I think size is one of the most important things in private markets, and this is something that I think you will see develop over the next decade is you will have niche specialists that do one thing really, really well. And then you will have large platforms like ours that can really invest in the resources they need to source, manage, and transform the assets that they invest in. And I think you're going to see a ki”

“In a world today where we should all expect higher rates for longer because of some of these geopolitical and fiscal themes that we referenced earlier, alpha generation is going to be first and foremost what people are going to focus on. And I think the entire private equity landscape will reorient to funding those players that can demonstrate the ability to improve the assets that they own.”

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