Blackstone Draws $22B to First US Direct Lending Fund 

Blackstone has closed the first series of its evergreen institutional U.S. direct lending fund at $22 billion, including anticipated leverage, easily surpassing its $10 billion target. 

The final close of the Blackstone Senior Direct Lending Fund brings the asset manager’s global direct lending platform to over $123 billion in assets under management as of the third quarter. 

“This capital raise reflects our long-term strength in private credit, our global reach across corporates and sponsor-led transactions, and our ability to add value to the companies with which we partner,” said Brad Marshall, global head of private credit strategies at BXCI. 

BXCI deployed or committed $40 billion in direct lending during the third quarter, more than double the volume across all of 2023. This included participation in the $7.5 billion financing facility for AI business CoreWeave and the $2.7 billion facility for website-building platform Squarespace. 

Inflows into the $355 billion Credit & Insurance business (BXCI) increased by 22% in the latest quarter, totaling $21.4 billion, and more than $80 billion over the last year. It is now the asset manager’s biggest business line.