Anthropic drives record monthly gain for Blackstone private wealth fund

Blackstone's private equity fund for wealthy investors recorded its strongest monthly performance since launch in May, driven by its exposure to Anthropic, according to a report by Bloomberg. Class I shares in Blackstone Private Equity Strategies (BXPE) saw a net return of 4.3% in May, contributing to year-to-date gains of 11.4%. The fund also deployed more than $2.5 billion in the second quarter, including further investment in Anthropic and a new investment in payments group Stripe. Since its 2024 launch, BXPE Class I shares have returned 19.1%, after generating a 20% net gain last year.

BXPE indicated a more constructive environment for exits, helped by increased IPO activity, including SpaceX's public listing. This is expected to support realizations across its portfolio. The fund has the flexibility to invest around 30% of its net asset value in deals outside Blackstone's institutional private equity funds, allowing it to back companies linked to AI and assets it may want to hold for longer in perpetual capital vehicles.

Alongside Anthropic, the fund has invested in OpenAI, AI infrastructure business CoreWeave, and Elon Musk's SpaceX. Blackstone manages more than $310 billion in private wealth assets across its platform, although parts of the market have faced pressure this year from elevated redemption requests in retail-facing private credit funds.