Hard Assets Edge Past Credit in 2026 Alts Fundraising
Alternative investment fundraising fell 13% through August, but the decline was concentrated in credit as investors directed more capital toward real estate and infrastructure, according to figures from Robert A. Stanger & Co.
Total fundraising reached $119 billion in the first eight months of 2026, down from $137.3 billion a year earlier. Credit strategies raised $38.7 billion, a 47% drop from $72.5 billion. Excluding credit, fundraising rose 24% to $80.3 billion. Stanger’s earlier reports showed the same divergence through July.
Real estate and infrastructure, which Stanger groups as “hard assets with low obsolescence,” raised a combined $38.9 billion, up 37%. Infrastructure led with $20.2 billion, a 65% increase, while real estate drew $18.8 billion, up 16%. The combined hard-asset total narrowly exceeded credit fundraising. Stanger said hard assets had outraised credit in each of the past five months.
Year-to-date 2026 gross fundraising by investment strategy, compared with the same period in 2025, is summarized in the table below:
“The crossover is narrow, but the shift behind it is not,” said Kevin T. Gannon, Stanger’s chairman and CEO.
Business development companies accounted for much of credit’s weakness. Publicly registered and private placement BDCs raised a combined $17 billion, down 60% from $43 billion. Publicly registered nonlisted BDCs fell 74% to $8.1 billion, while private placement BDCs declined 22% to $8.9 billion.
The method of raising capital also changed. Private placements increased 12% to $61.1 billion and accounted for 51% of the total, up from 40% a year earlier. Public programs fell 30% to $57.9 billion.
“Investors are changing how they access alternatives as much as what they are buying,” Gannon added. “Private placements represented roughly a quarter of year-to-date fundraising five years ago; today, they account for more than half. That is a structural change in how alternative investment capital is being raised.”
Year-to-date gross fundraising by product category through August 2026, compared with prior full-year totals:
