Private capital is rushing toward the systems that keep society running. McKinsey partners Alastair Green and Adrian Kwok explain why AI, power and a shortage of skilled labor will decide where the money lands.
Ares grew from a Los Angeles credit shop into a sprawling private-markets platform by learning to lend where banks pulled back - then carrying that playbook into property, infrastructure, secondaries and insurance.
Most investors diversify by geography. The O.H.I.O. Fund does the opposite - using an Ohio-only mandate, a multi-asset portfolio and a local network to turn home-state knowledge into an investing edge.
The New York investment firm has raised more than $1 billion to combine land, operators and software - from truck terminals and fleet-charging hubs to farms and housing.
I Squared Capital does not merely buy roads, grids and data centers. Its repeatable trick is to turn small groups of essential assets into operating platforms built to grow across markets.
The firm once synonymous with a single giant buyout now manages $796 billion across investments and insurance. Its real product is no longer the deal - it is a system for finding, financing and improving assets at global scale.
BlackRock manages $15.3 trillion for clients. The more revealing story is how iShares, Aladdin, and a private-markets buying spree turned one bond shop into infrastructure for modern investing.
Jonathan Winer is the co-founder and co-CEO of Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP), a New York-based firm that applies technology to physical infrastructure like power grids, roads, water and digital systems. Backed by Alphabet, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and StepStone, SIP has raised close to $1 billion and incubates operating companies such as virtual power plant Renew Home and grid-flexible data center developer Verrus. Before SIP, Winer ran investments for Alphabet's urban innovation platform Sidewalk Labs, founded the Asian clean-energy fund Nereus, and helped build the private equity business at the D. E. Shaw group. He is known for thematic, first-principles investing in what he calls the 'missing middle' between venture capital and traditional infrastructure.
Brian Barlow is the co-founder and co-CEO of Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP), the Alphabet spinout that owns, operates, and invests in next-generation energy, mobility, water, and digital infrastructure. He brings three decades of private equity, venture capital, and infrastructure investing - including a stint inside Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs and an early seat at Michael Burry's Scion Capital - to the question of how to fund and build the infrastructure cities actually need. SIP launched in 2020 with a $400 million backing from Google and has since seeded ventures like Renew Home and AMP Robotics.