Stephen Schwarzman on India investment
From The story of Blackstone Group and other life lessons from founder Stephen Schwarzman · · Forbes India
“India has been a great market for us at Blackstone and we've invested fifteen billion dollars so far six of which was last year primarily in private equity and real estate India itself as its economy has been slowing inflation's up a little bit and its banking sector is going through some kind of adjustment and crisis where were it's harder to get loans now you would think that would worry us but quite the contrary I it's going to worry a lot of people but but we look at that as a really very interesting time of opportunity where other people will need capital or they'll need to have to sell something to protect part of their business and because we don't have any practical limitations in terms of money we have a hundred and fifty billion dollars throughout the firm that's uninvested right now that that for us that this could be a very unique opportunity.”
On , Stephen Schwarzman, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder at Blackstone Inc, spoke about India investment during The story of Blackstone Group and other life lessons from founder Stephen Schwarzman on Forbes India.
About Stephen Schwarzman
Stephen Schwarzman, chairman, CEO and co-founder of Blackstone, has been discussing the firm's record financial results and its positioning in private markets. On the Q4 2025 earnings call, he reported that Blackstone achieved its best results in 40 years, with distributable earnings of $1.75 per share and a 20% increase in full-year distributable earnings to $5.7 billion. He has emphasized the firm's role as a business builder rather than a business buyer, citing its growth into areas such as AI-related infrastructure, where he stated Blackstone has become the largest investor globally with a portfolio of over $150 billion in data centers. Schwarzman has also addressed the expansion of alternatives into defined contribution retirement plans, describing it as an area of focus following a U.S. administration executive order, and noted a strategic alliance with Wellington and Vanguard to create integrated public-private investment solutions. Schwarzman has commented on market conditions and the private credit sector. On the Q1 2025 call, he described uncertainty around tariffs as impacting investor sentiment, while asserting that Blackstone's business model is designed for periods of stress, citing its low net debt and $177 billion in dry powder. He has pushed back against external assertions that private credit poses systemic risk, noting that Treasury and Federal Reserve leaders have not seen such risk, and argued that defaults in focus resulted from bank-led credits, not private credit. On the Q1 2026 call, he stated that the firm raised $62 billion in inflows in the quarter, the highest in three years, and expressed confidence that private credit products can deliver premium returns over liquid markets. In a March 2026 interview at Citi, Schwarzman discussed building a high-performance culture, depersonalizing decision-making, and supporting employees through mistakes, as well as his philanthropic work including the Schwarzman Scholars program.