- 20 years of the asset managers ranking: 43 enduring names have stayed in the top 100 in every year since 2005, while 51 of today’s top 100 joined after 2005
- A small group of private market hyperscalers grew 17.2% p.a. AUM since 2020
- In 2025, the top 500 managers reached USD 169.7 trillion total discretionary AUM
- Passives now account for 45.6% of total assets, a 3.7% annual increase in share of investments
Global, Monday 16th November, 2026 — Total assets under management (AUM) at the world’s 500 largest asset managers reached USD 169.7 trillion at the end of 2025, according to new research from The Thinking Ahead Institute.
The findings point to a shift in the centre of gravity as a small group of private market firms grew faster than the wider manager universe. The top six private market firms in focus – Blackstone, Brookfield, Apollo, KKR, Ares, Carlyle – more than doubled their AUM over the five years from 2020, exhibiting annualised growth of 17.2%, with KKR alone delivering an annualised growth of 24.2%, the fastest growth among the top 50 firms.
This year’s ranking consists of a larger manager universe, with several additional sizeable organisations included. Most of the further additions are US-based, and many are private-markets and hedge fund managers that were previously under-represented in the study.
The industry’s largest 20 firms remained steady, including 9 independent managers, 2 insurers, and 9 banks with an average AUM of USD 5.2 trillion, USD 2.3 trillion, and USD 3.1 trillion respectively as of the end of 2025. The top 20 managers’ share of total assets fell from 47.0% in 2024 to 46.3% in 2025, even as their combined assets rose by 19.6% to USD 78.7 trillion.
This year marks 20 years of the Top 500 managers report, a period of extraordinary change in asset management. Over that time, 43 enduring names have remained in the top 100 in every annual ranking since 2005, including BlackRock, Vanguard, Fidelity Investments, State Street, J.P. Morgan Chase, Capital Group, Allianz and UBS. Alongside this stability, the top 100 has been substantially renewed: 51 of today’s top 100 managers joined after 2005.
Adding a new dimension to the dynamics reshaping global asset management, the emerging asset manager hyperscalers are gaining a competitive advantage. Borrowing the term from the technology sector, these ‘hyperscalers’ are organisations that use their scale alongside their capabilities, relationships, and governance to gain greater influence and deliver better outcomes.
The shift towards passive investment also continued as these investments now account for 45.6% of total assets, marking a 3.7% increase over the year. Alternatively, actively managed assets declined 2.9% from the previous year, forming the remaining 54.4% of investments.
Jessica Gao, director at the Thinking Ahead Institute, commented:
“Scale is becoming a different kind of competitive advantage. Emerging asset-manager hyperscalers are using scale to create integrated platforms that can originate, structure, execute and distribute investments, and deploy capital into opportunities of increasing size and complexity.
“That advantage is self-reinforcing: as capabilities, relationships and technology come together, the largest managers gain broader access to deals, data and partnerships, and extend their reach across markets and clients. This is accelerating the shift from product-led businesses towards platform models across the industry. But bigger does not automatically mean better – the long-term challenge is to turn scale into better investment outcomes and a more resilient system.”
The world’s largest money managers, ranked by total AUM (US$ millions)
| Rank | Fund | Domicile | Total Assets |
| 1 | BlackRock | U.S. | 14,041,518 |
| 2 | Vanguard Group | U.S. | 12,030,956 |
| 3 | Fidelity Investments | U.S. | 6,570,461 |
| 4 | State Street Inv. Mgmt. | U.S. | 5,664,903 |
| 5 | J.P. Morgan Chase | U.S. | 4,791,028 |
| 6 | Goldman Sachs Group | U.S. | 3,606,000 |
| 7 | UBS | Switzerland | 3,346,000 |
| 8 | Capital Group | U.S. | 3,336,461 |
| 9 | Allianz Group | Germany | 2,954,891 |
| 10 | BNP Paribas | France | 2,873,725 |
| 11 | Amundi | France | 2,796,500 |
| 12 | BNY Investments | U.S. | 2,178,494 |
| 13 | Invesco | U.S. | 2,169,872 |
| 14 | Geode Capital Mgmt. | U.S. | 1,963,446 |
| 15 | Morgan Stanley Inv. Mgmt. | U.S. | 1,850,670 |
| 16 | Northern Trust | U.S. | 1,803,200 |
| 17 | T. Rowe Price Group | U.S. | 1,775,600 |
| 18 | Franklin Templeton | U.S. | 1,683,960 |
| 19 | Prudential Financial | U.S. | 1,609,059 |
| 20 | Charles Schwab Investment | U.S. | 1,606,471 |
About the Thinking Ahead Institute
The Thinking Ahead Institute was established in January 2015 and is a global not-for-profit investment research and innovation member group made up of engaged institutional asset owners and asset managers committed to mobilising capital for a sustainable future. It has 52 members around the world and is an outgrowth of the WTW Investments’ Thinking Ahead Group which was set up in 2002. Learn more at https://www.thinkingaheadinstitute.org/
About WTW
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Media contact
| Sarah Toubman Client Manager JPES Partners +44 (0)20 7520 7633 sarah.toubman@jpespartners.com | Noor Fatima Client Executive JPES Partners +44 (0)20 7520 7637 noor.fatima@jpespartners.com |
