BlackRock chairman and CEO Larry Fink joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss the company's quarterly earnings results, 2026 outlook, state of the economy, concerns of an AI bubble, what to expect from the World Economic Forum in Davos next week, and more.
Questions asked in this interview
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0:18So, you're talking about a step function that you took in this time since we seen you last. How did you?
2:25Is that what I'm hearing you talk about? Is that the differentiation?
You know what? We've got a great treat because we've got someone who kind of understands and spans all the gap like everything. And that's why we like to speak to Larry Fink at BlackRock and their shares are ticking up to every other bank when they because it's not a bank. That's what's important. I'm going to go right to you, Larry.
Oh yeah, absolutely. That too. By the way, Larry David says you can't do that fast. How did you do it? How did you take in? So, you're talking about a step function that you took in this time since we seen you last. How did you?
I'm not sure if it's a step function. Over the last 5 years, we raised $2.5 trillion. So, it's not much of a step, but we had our best year ever. 700 billion in net flows, 342 billion in the last quarter. I think what you're seeing in every industry, in every economy, we're starting to see more and more K economies. I think the scale operator is winning more share of wallet. In our case, the growth that we saw in Latin America, in Asia, in the Middle East was extensive. No firm has a combination of public markets, private markets, and investment technology. So, we're able to provide a whole portfolio, a complete relationship. When you think about everyone's speculating what's going to happen in 401ks and the introduction of private markets, well, we're the largest player in that already. And so we have those type of relationships already. It is not just about inserting private markets. It's about a portfolio. It's about trying to create the most unique portfolio to meet the beneficiaries' long-term needs. And we've organized the firm to provide both public and private markets. And then you intersect what we were doing in investment technology, which we had 16% ACV growth in the quarter. If you are going to provide private markets into 401ks and all that, you're going to need to justify it. And the only way we're going to be able to justify it is through investment technology. They're coming to BlackRock to set that up as we develop.
Frequent as a part of all the words you use in the call, differentiated momentum. Is that what I'm hearing you talk about? Is that the differentiation?
But it's still, look, there was a negative thesis going around which was that this is commoditized. I think that this was the quarter where it just says no, there's BlackRock and then the companies that aren't commoditized.
Well, we saw over the last 10, 15 years as we've done mergers. Every time you do mergers, there's questions on are you integrating? How can you achieve what you expected? So there's always that uncertainty post-mergers. We saw that certainly in 2009 when we did BGI when everyone said you could not marry public markets and passive and active. I guess they were wrong on that when iShares had 300 billion and now 5.5 trillion. And now we're merging both public markets and private markets and there's uncertainty. I think what the fourth quarter showed maybe that uncertainty was not unjustified. We are executing. The integration of all three firms is going as planned, if not far beyond planned.
Is this year going to be the year of the steeper curve?
I think so. I mean, look, I think there's good justification of lowering rates if you believe the power of AI. If you see the deflationary impact of China with a trillion dollar trade surplus, these are all very deflationary trends and AI is deflationary. And so it may not show up as much in 2026, but out in 2027 you could see real impact on that. And so, I do believe that's going to lead to a steeper yield curve, and that is why we think income is going to be a big theme over the next few years.
Let's talk about something that you've come on many times and we mentioned that there really wasn't a new generation of savers. You were concerned. I see the possibility here of a new generation and by the way the Trump accounts are make it fantastic.
14 more exchanges in this transcript
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Fink, L. (2026, January 15). BlackRock CEO Larry Fink: We're too focused on monetary policy and not enough on fiscal discipline [Interview transcript]. CNBC Television. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/640657/
MLA
Larry Fink. "BlackRock CEO Larry Fink: We're too focused on monetary policy and not enough on fiscal discipline." CNBC Television, 15 Jan. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/640657/.
BibTeX
@misc{fink2026_640657,
author = {Larry Fink},
title = {BlackRock CEO Larry Fink: We're too focused on monetary policy and not enough on fiscal discipline},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, CNBC Television. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {jan},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/640657/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
