Blackstone (NYSE:BX) executives expressed confidence in the private credit market during their Q1 2026 earnings call, aiming to reassure investors and ease concerns.
The private credit sector has been under fire in recent weeks as investors are concerned about default risks, high interest rates, and the disruption AI may have on the software sector. This has led to increased redemption requests in various private credit companies’ portfolios.
Blackstone’s private credit fund, BCRED, saw unusually high redemptions of $3.7 billion in the first quarter, driven primarily by larger investors.
“The great mass by number of smaller investors tends to stick with the product over a long period of time. It’s sort of the bigger boulders as opposed to the pebbles, where you get more movement in terms of redemptions,” Blackstone Chief Operating Officer (COO) Jonathan Gray said during the call.
Gray also addressed concerns about software and artificial intelligence. When asked whether AI is weighing on software spreads—particularly amid the widening in private credit—and how to manage the associated risk, …
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