Blackstone's Schwarzman Ties $1.3 Trillion AI Bet to 2015 Chat With Jack Ma

Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman said the firm's sweeping bet on artificial intelligence traces back to a chance 2015 encounter with Alibaba founder Jack Ma on a passenger coach in China, where Ma told him AI would be the most consequential technological shift. Schwarzman, speaking on Bloomberg Television's "Leaders With Francine Lacqua," said he did not understand the subject at the time. The $1.3 trillion alternative asset manager now spans data centers, energy, chip financing, corporate equity and internal investment decisions. Blackstone holds roughly $200 billion in data center assets, partners with Google (GOOGL) on cloud computing, holds stakes in AI labs including OpenAI, and runs financing backed by Broadcom (AVGO) and Nvidia (NVDA) chips. It also invests in power plants and cooling equipment, and pushes AI adoption across portfolio companies via Ode, an advisory firm it co-founded with Anthropic and Hellman & Friedman. As the largest U.S. commercial data center owner, Blackstone faces rising political and social pressure over job losses, AI safety and power consumption, with some projects obstructed. Schwarzman acknowledged concentration risk, comparing AI to Edison's 1882 light bulb, which needed roughly 40 years of grid buildout to pay off.