Biggest Private Equity Firms in the World

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The biggest private equity firms here are ranked by market capitalization (share price times shares outstanding) of publicly listed private-markets managers. That measures what investors will pay for the management company itself, not the size of the funds the firm runs, the capital it has raised or the companies it owns. Blackstone leads by a wide margin, followed by Brookfield Corporation and KKR. Firms privately owned by their partners cannot appear in a market cap ranking at all, however large their funds are.

That one choice of yardstick explains most of what looks surprising in the order. It is why the table includes fund-of-funds specialists and credit managers next to classic buyout houses, and why well-known names such as Thoma Bravo or Hellman & Friedman are missing.

What a Market Cap Ranking Measures

Market capitalization prices a listed manager’s whole earnings stream: management fees on the capital in its funds, carried interest (its share of the profits on successful investments) and, for some firms, returns on capital invested from their own balance sheet. Investors value a manager on how much fee income it collects, how steady that income is, how much carried interest they expect it to earn in future, and how fast they think it will grow. Two firms with similar assets can therefore have very different market values. A manager whose revenue comes mostly from recurring fees on long-lived funds may be valued differently from one more dependent on profitable exits.

Three Common Yardsticks Compared

Each produces a different list. Private Equity International’s PEI 300, for example, ranks firms by private equity capital raised over a five-year window. Its 2025 edition, covering funds raised from January 1, 2020, to December 21, 2024, put KKR, EQT and Blackstone in the top three. By market cap, Blackstone ranks first, KKR third and EQT seventh.

AUM is not a single standard either. Firms define it in different ways (some include uncalled commitments, leverage or co-investment capital), so AUM figures from two managers are not always like-for-like.

How to Use the Ranking

What the order is good for depends on the question behind it.

If you are comparing firms as stocks, market cap is the right starting point, but it is not a valuation by itself. Look at each firm’s revenue mix (management fees versus carried interest versus balance-sheet gains), how much of its capital is locked up in long-term funds and how dependent it is on asset sales to report profits. Market caps move with share prices, so the order can shift as markets move. A share price on its own says nothing about size: Partners Group has one of the highest share prices in the table but sits in the middle by market value, because its share count is small.

If you want to know who controls the most capital or raises the most money, a market cap list is the wrong tool. Use AUM or a fundraising ranking, where private partnerships also appear.

If you are considering investing with a firm rather than in its shares, the relevant measures are the track record of the specific fund, its strategy, its fees and its terms. A large, well-valued parent company does not guarantee that any one fund will perform well.

Every firm in the ranking can be bought through an ordinary brokerage account with no accreditation requirement, or held in diversified form through exchange-traded funds of listed private equity firms. Owning shares in a manager is not the same as owning its funds’ portfolio companies: shareholders participate in the firm’s fees and carried interest, while fund investors participate in the deal returns. Listed investment companies such as 3i sit closer to the second model, because their value rests mainly on the companies they hold.

Why Some Famous Names Are Missing

Many of the most active buyout firms are partnerships owned by their senior professionals, with no shares trading on an exchange. They can rank high on fundraising or AUM tables and still be absent here. Examples include:

• Thoma Bravo, a software and technology specialist.
• Hellman & Friedman, founded in 1984 in San Francisco.
• Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), founded in 1978.
• Hg, a London-based software and services investor formed in 2000.
• Insight Partners, founded in 1995.

Who Is in the Table: Four Kinds of Firms

The entries are private-markets managers, a wider group than buyout specialists, and grouping them by business model is more useful than reading the order alone.

Multi-Strategy Alternative Asset Managers

Blackstone was founded in 1985 and is based in New York, with offices including London, Hong Kong, Beijing and Abu Dhabi. Private equity is only one of its businesses: it also holds hundreds of billions of dollars in real estate, credit and hedge fund strategies, and its first place on a market cap basis reflects the value investors put on that whole platform.

KKR, formerly Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, was founded in 1976 in New York and was one of the first firms to do large-scale leveraged buyouts. Its 1989 buyout of RJR Nabisco became one of the defining deals of the era, and its 2007 buyout of TXU was the largest leveraged buyout ever. Portfolio companies have included 1-800 Contacts and DoorDash.

Apollo Global Management and Carlyle Group are also large U.S. alternative managers with private equity roots, and both are listed. Ares Management and Blue Owl Capital belong in this group as well, though their identity rests more on private credit and lending to companies than on buying them outright. A reader looking specifically for buyout exposure should weigh that difference.

TPG was founded in 1992 by David Bonderman and Jim Coulter and is based in Fort Worth, Texas, with more than 29 other offices in 13 countries. Its deal history includes the 1993 buyout of Continental Airlines, the 2000 acquisition of Petco (with Leonard Green & Partners) and the 2002 leveraged buyout of Burger King alongside Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners. Holdings have included DirecTV, IPSY and Airbnb.

European Buyout Houses

EQT, based in Sweden and founded in 1994, operates across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific, with funds in leveraged buyouts, growth, venture and real estate. It ranks among the leaders on fundraising, which shows how a firm can sit lower on a market cap table while raising capital on the scale of the biggest U.S. names.

CVC Capital Partners, founded in 1981, has about 30 offices worldwide and a private equity portfolio of more than 150 companies, including Authentic Brands Group and Lipton Teas and Infusions. Its legal domicile is Jersey, while its shares trade in Amsterdam. Bridgepoint Group is a London-listed buyout manager and the smallest entry by market value.

Brookfield’s Two Listings

Brookfield appears twice, and the entries are not two separate businesses of equal standing. Brookfield Asset Management is the fee-earning asset manager. Brookfield Corporation is the parent, which holds a large stake in the asset manager alongside its own investments in real estate, infrastructure, renewable power and insurance. Because part of the parent’s value comes from its stake in the manager, adding the two market caps together double counts.

Investment Companies and Solutions Providers

3i Group works differently from most of the list. It is a London-listed investment company that invests mainly its own balance-sheet capital in private companies, rather than earning most of its income from fees on outside investors’ funds. Its market value therefore tracks the value of its holdings more directly.

Partners Group, Hamilton Lane and StepStone Group are private markets solutions providers. Much of their work involves helping institutions build private markets portfolios: investing in other managers’ funds, buying stakes in existing funds on the secondary market, co-investing alongside other sponsors and advising clients. Their role sits between investors and the buyout firms.

FAQs

The Bottom Line

The ranking is most useful to investors comparing listed private-markets managers as stocks, and even then it is a starting point for checking revenue mix and reliance on asset sales. Readers asking who controls or raises the most capital should use AUM or fundraising tables instead. Anyone investing in a fund should judge that fund's own track record, strategy, fees and terms, since a valuable parent company does not guarantee results.