What Companies Does BlackRock Own in 2026? Tech, Healthcare & More

With over $10 trillion in investments under its control, it’s no surprise that BlackRock (BLK) occasionally attracts its share of controversy. Among other things, the company has been criticized for its strong stance on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) requirements and accused of inflating residential real estate prices by investing heavily in rental properties.

What is BlackRock?

BlackRock is mainly an intermediary for other investors. Its goals are financial, not political, and this is reflected in the geographical and industry breadth of its investments.

Let’s take a look at BlackRock-owned companies, focusing on those in which they have a major stake.

Key Takeaways

Though BlackRock controls a large amount of capital, almost all of it is owned by its clients, who rely on BlackRock to manage their investments.
During its existence, BlackRock has made several strategic mergers and acquisitions to expand into new markets.
BlackRock, on behalf of its clients, also owns considerable portions of several blue-chip and less well-known publically traded companies.
However, it does not control these companies in the same way it does its subsidiaries or companies owned by BlackRock.
In recent years, BlackRock has held considerable share positions in large, established technology companies with growth potential.
BlackRock manages several different funds, some based primarily on fixed-income instruments rather than stocks.

Top 7 Companies Owned by BlackRock in 2026

Is BlackRock the richest company in the world?

No, despite its huge assets under management (AUM), BlackRock is not the richest company in the world.

Usually, a company is considered ‘the richest’ by market capitalization. As of November 22, 2024, the top 3 richest companies in the world were Nvidia (NVDA), Apple (AAPL), and Microsoft (MSFT). Blackrock ranked #98 in this list with a market cap of $152.27 billion.

Company information available from the SEC clearly shows that BlackRock’s own assets amount to only about one percent of the money it invests on behalf of its clients.

BlackRock is known to follow broad social responsibility guidelines when determining what kinds of companies they’ll invest in. However, it’s important to understand that BlackRock doesn’t enforce these norms otherwise.

BlackRock executives don’t normally take an active role in the management of all the companies BlackRock owns shares in.

Given that they often invest in competing enterprises (Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, for example, with 7.37% and 8.1% stakes, respectively), this would constitute an unacceptable conflict of interest. Similar situations exist in other industries in which BlackRock is a major player, like news media and retail banking.

However, since its founding in 1988, BlackRock has merged with or bought several companies outright. These are mostly associated with the company’s core investment and risk management business.

1. Barclay’s Global Investors

The largest of these acquisitions occurred in 2009, when BlackRock purchased Barclay’s Global Investors, the bank’s asset management arm, for $13.5 billion.

This sale included the iShares ETF platform, the biggest issuer of ETFs in the United States and globally.

2. Global Infrastructure Partners

Second in size was the acquisition of Global Infrastructure Partners for $12.5 billion (paid in a mixture of cash and BlackRock stock).

This provided the company with significant exposure to the power generation, shipping and other infrastructure markets. The transaction was finalized early in 2024.

3. Merrill Lynch’s Investment Managers division

BlackRock also merged with Merrill Lynch’s Investment Managers division back in 2006 in a deal valued at a cool $9.3 billion.

The resulting entity found itself with over $1 trillion in assets under management and significantly increased the BlackRock brand’s appeal to retail investors, especially internationally.

4. Global Capital Management

Prior to their deal with Merrill, Bank of America’s asset management business, Global Capital Management, also transferred over $80 billion of the investments it managed to BlackRock.

This boosted the latter’s assets under management figure to over $370 billion. Some specifics of the agreement between the two companies weren’t publicly disclosed. However, it gave “legacy-BofA Global Capital Management clients broader access to high quality, global liquidity investment solutions,” according to the companies’ official statement.

5. Kreos Capital

In June 2023, BlackRock announced the acquisition of Kreos Capital, a private debt manager specializing in growth and venture debt funding for companies in healthcare and technology.

The deal was valued at approximately $400 million. This acquisition aimed to strengthen BlackRock’s position as a global leader in credit asset management and expand its range of private market investment solutions. This deal enhanced BlackRock’s ability to address the growing opportunities in direct lending globally.

BlackRock's Total Assets Under Management (AUM), 2008 to 2024

6. eFront

Not all of BlackRock’s acquisitions were primarily aimed at expanding their access to international institutional and retail investment markets, though.

In 2019, it paid $1.3 billion for French company eFront. This was specifically to gain ownership of its innovative investment analysis software, which supports intelligent trading of alternative asset classes.

7. Aperio

Similarly, Aperio was acquired for just over $1 billion in 2021 for its experience in designing and administering tax-optimized index equity separately managed accounts.

Potential Acquisitions: HPS Investment Partners & Millennium

BlackRock has also steadily expanded its operations with several other, smaller deals that added to the BlackRock companies list.

Most recently, the company has been reported as being in talks with private credit company HPS Investment Partners and hedge fund Millennium.

Top BlackRock Stock Holdings

Though investing in financial services can be lucrative, BlackRock looks further afield when making money for their clients. BlackRock ownership in these companies is often substantial but far from a controlling interest.

In other words, BlackRock can influence the strategic direction of such a company, but they’re not in a position to dictate its policies.

Therefore, it would be simplistic to say these companies are “owned” by BlackRock, although they retain considerable equity in them.

According to the company’s latest SEC filings, which show exactly how much BlackRock is worth in terms of assets under management, their biggest investments are:

Microsoft – 553 million shares – 5.6% of BlackRock’s Portfolio

One of the most stable technology companies out there, Microsoft has been a cornerstone of BlackRock’s holdings starting from about 2015. Currently, it controls 553 million shares, translating to 7.45% of the company.

Microsoft and BlackRock can also be said to be strategic partners. BlackRock’s proprietary portfolio management software, Alladin, is hosted on Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform.

Nvidia — 227 million shares – 5.1% of BlackRock’s Portfolio

BlackRock, not blind to the growth potential of companies involved in the AI market, increased the proportion of its total investment pool held in Nvidia stock from 1.3% to 5.1% since 2022. BlackRock’s stake represents 7.27% of the company’s shares.

It’s also worth noting that BlackRock, in partnership with Microsoft and other investment management companies, has recently announced plans to invest an initial $30 billion in energy, data, and artificial intelligence infrastructure.

This, according to CEO Larry Fink, can be expected to “unlock a multi-trillion-dollar long-term investment opportunity.”

Apple – 221 million shares – 5% of BlackRock’s Portfolio

Back in 2013, BlackRock only owned a relatively paltry 2 million shares in this technology company.

Of course, BlackRock’s total portfolio was much smaller then; plus, Apple stock split 7:1 in 2014 and again 4:1 in 2020. Nonetheless, it’s clear that this institutional investor has faith in the iPhone manufacturer’s prospects.

Other Major BlackRock Holdings

In the near future, we might expect BlackRock’s portfolio to continue being slanted toward the large-cap tech stocks that have been performing so splendidly since 2023.

In fact, of BlackRock’s 15 largest stock investments, eight are in high-growth, innovative industries.

The remaining seven are in healthcare (Eli Lilly and UnitedHealth), financial services (Visa, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan Chase, iShares), and petroleum/chemicals (ExxonMobil).

How many companies does BlackRock own shares in besides these?

The list of companies owned by BlackRock is long and ever-changing. In addition to stock investments, BlackRock’s various investment funds invest heavily in instruments like private and government bonds, pipelines and other infrastructure, real estate, and cryptocurrency.

The Bottom Line

A single investment management company controlling assets amounting to roughly 40% of the US GDP isn’t exactly a situation Adam Smith or, for that matter, Milton Friedman ever envisaged.

How big is BlackRock going to become before it’s no longer “too big to fail” but “too big to trust”? It’s entirely possible that future regulations will constrain the activities of the “Big Three” index fund managers (who also invest heavily in one another).

However, despite certain concerns about its influence, BlackRock simply does what any asset manager does: invest in promising companies and projects, as with its newly-minted cryptocurrency ETF.

The company’s size simply allows a broader range of specializations than is possible for smaller competitors, making BlackRock an attractive option for retail and institutional investors alike.