The world’s largest 500 asset managers is a joint annual research study conducted by the Thinking Ahead Institute, in conjunction with Pensions & Investments. This edition covers trends and assets under management (AUM) for 2025.
Key industry observations
- 20 years of asset managers ranking – for two decades, the Top 500 report has captured an extraordinary period of change in asset management
- In 2025, the top 500 managers reached USD 169.7 trillion total discretionary AUM
- A small group of private market hyperscalers grew 17.2% p.a. AUM since 2020
- Passives now account for 45.6% of total assets, a 3.7% annual increase in share of investments
- The Top 20 managers’ share of total AUM was 46.3% in 2025.
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.
Full report
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Related pages
The world’s largest asset managers 2026 press release
Explore more Institute surveys
Looking ahead to 2026

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World’s largest 500 asset managers 2026
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