The Largest Private Credit Managers in 2026
The private credit list is the page that should change how you read the rest of this site.
Apollo Global Management reports $718.5 billion of regulatory assets on the private credit list. Across the filings these pages actually print, one number is larger. Millennium Management reports $720.8 billion on the hedge fund list. Those printed totals are rounded to a tenth of a billion. The filings differ by $2.4 billion. Apollo is also $336.9 billion ahead of the filing that leads the private equity list. That filing is KKR, at $381.6 billion.
You can still open the buyout page first. Plenty of people will. The credit filings are the ones carrying the bigger totals.
The year in the title is the year these pages were published. The header says Updated October 2026. That is the month the pages went up, and the figures under it do not carry a filing date. A registered adviser refreshes Item 5 on its annual amendment, within 90 days after its fiscal year ends. Another amendment during the year can leave that item alone, so two names can be reporting totals pulled months apart. The gross count, uncalled commitments included, is in What Is Regulatory AUM?. You are looking at filed adviser-level totals, taken as reported.
A larger filing is a larger reported total under those rules. It is silent on results. The order of a list is not a recommendation, and nothing here is an offer.
What gets counted
Regulatory assets under management is Item 5.F on Form ADV, Part 1A. The adviser counts the securities portfolios it continuously manages. A private fund comes on in full, plus the contractual amount of any commitment an investor still owes. Borrowings stay in. Cash that has been pledged and not yet wired is inside the number. The ranking prints the form.
Each list shows a firm once, at its largest filing for that list. Several advisers under one brand stay on separate lines, because a combined total would be a figure no single form reports. Banks and the other exclusions are on the methodology page. All seven lists are linked from rankings.
180 firms are on the private credit list. Ten are named. Every one of those ten reports more than $100 billion.
The first three clear the top of buyout
Apollo is first, at $718.5 billion. The name on the filing is Apollo Capital Management, L.P. The description published with the row is an alternative manager focused on credit, plus private equity and real assets, with a large insurance balance sheet. On this site that is Apollo's only listing. The Apollo profile has one figure, pointed at private credit.
Ares Management is second, at $458.8 billion, filed as Ares Management LLC. The row describes a manager best known for direct lending and credit, plus private equity and real estate. The step down from Apollo is $259.7 billion. Ares is still $175.0 billion larger than Carlyle, second on the buyout list at $283.8 billion.
Barings is third, at $392.8 billion, filed as Barings LLC. The list describes Barings as a MassMutual-owned manager focused on private credit, fixed income, real assets, and private equity. Barings still sits above the buyout list's leader. KKR's $381.6 billion buyout filing is $11.2 billion smaller than Barings.
Each of those three credit filings is larger than the largest buyout filing on the site. Add Apollo, Ares, and Barings and you get $1,570.1 billion. Add all ten named credit filings and you get $2,702.6 billion. The first three are 58.1 percent of that ten-name total.
KKR on this list is a credit adviser
KKR is fourth, at $270.9 billion. If you arrive from the buyout list, slow down on the KKR profile. The credit filing is KKR Credit Advisors (US) LLC. The buyout filing, first on the private equity list, is Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. at $381.6 billion. The buyout filing is the larger of the two. Same public name. Two advisers. The profile leaves both numbers up, because adding them would publish a total neither form reports.
Carlyle's buyout filing of $283.8 billion is just ahead of KKR's credit number. Fourth place in credit is still ahead of every remaining name on the buyout ten. Blackstone is third in buyout at $183.5 billion.
A tight band, then a step down
Oaktree Capital Management, Golub Capital, and HPS Investment Partners sit inside a span of $7.6 billion.
Oaktree is fifth at $183.3 billion, filed as Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. The row describes a manager specializing in distressed debt, private credit, and opportunistic real assets. Blackstone's buyout filing is $183.5 billion, under the name Blackstone ISG-I Advisors L.L.C. That buyout filing is $0.2 billion larger than Oaktree's. Two lists, almost the same Item 5.F total.
Blackstone's profile on this site carries three filings, and the credit list is not among them. Real assets is $130.7 billion, filed as Blackstone Real Estate Advisors L.P., fourth on the real assets and infrastructure list. Secondaries is $80.4 billion, filed as Strategic Partners Fund Solutions Advisors L.P., seventh on the secondaries and fund-of-funds list. The Blackstone profile keeps the buyout, real assets, and secondaries figures apart. The ten credit names are a different set of advisers.
Golub is sixth at $177.9 billion. The name on the filing is Gc Advisors LLC. The public name and the form do not match, which is why the profile prints both. The description is an investment adviser to Golub Capital vehicles making direct loans to middle-market companies backed by sponsors. Thoma Bravo is fourth on the buyout list at $182.9 billion, a little above Golub. Oaktree is $5.4 billion larger than Golub.
HPS is seventh at $175.7 billion, filed as HPS Investment Partners, LLC. The row describes private corporate lending, asset-based finance, and liquid credit. From Oaktree at $183.3 billion to HPS at $175.7 billion is that $7.6 billion. TPG is fifth on the buyout list at $173.6 billion, filed as Tpg Global Advisors, LLC, just under the HPS filing.
TPG Angelo Gordon is eighth at $115.9 billion. The name on the filing is Tpg Angelo Gordon. The list describes the firm as the alternative investment arm of TPG, investing in credit and real estate across the US, Europe, and Asia. TPG's buyout adviser is a different legal entity and a different profile. Tpg Global Advisors, LLC reports $173.6 billion. The Angelo Gordon filing is $115.9 billion. The pages do not combine them.
Brookfield is ninth on the credit list at $107.3 billion, and first on the real assets list at $152.1 billion. The credit filing is Bam Credit and Insurance Solutions Advisor LLC, described as a Brookfield vehicle managing credit and insurance-related investment portfolios. The real assets filing is Brookfield Asset Management Pic Canada, LP, and that figure is $44.8 billion larger. One brand, two advisers, two ranks. The Brookfield profile shows both, and it does not add them. Ninth in credit is $0.8 billion above Andreessen Horowitz, which leads the venture capital list at $106.5 billion.
Sixth Street is tenth at $101.6 billion, filed as Sixth Street Advisers, LLC. The description is a firm best known for flexible direct lending and opportunistic credit across sectors. Apollo's $718.5 billion is just over seven times that filing. Tenth place still clears $100 billion, and so does every name above it.
On the buyout list the floor is lower. Bain Capital is ninth at $96.4 billion. Cerberus Capital Management is tenth at $92.5 billion. Sixth Street's filing is $5.2 billion above Bain and $9.1 billion above Cerberus. Andreessen Horowitz at $106.5 billion is $4.9 billion above Sixth Street, and smaller than the other nine names on the credit list. Tenth in venture is OrbiMed at $20.6 billion. Sixth Street's $101.6 billion is 4.9 times that filing.
The ten-name stacks
The ten named credit filings add up to $2,702.6 billion. The ten named buyout filings add up to $1,728.6 billion. The credit ten are larger by $974.0 billion.
The hedge fund ten are larger again, at $3,234.8 billion. The top of the two lists is closer than those full stacks. Millennium at $720.8 billion, Citadel at $570.6 billion, and AQR Capital Management at $311.7 billion add up to $1,603.2 billion. Apollo, Ares, and Barings add up to $1,570.1 billion. The hedge fund top three lead by $33.1 billion. Apollo alone, at $718.5 billion, is $147.9 billion larger than Citadel.
Count the firms on each list and credit comes third. 271 firms are on the hedge fund list. 225 are on the buyout list. 180 are on the credit list. Real assets is next, at 176. Hedge funds also keep every named firm above $100 billion. Tenth there is Taula Capital Management at $210.9 billion, which is $109.3 billion above Sixth Street and larger than Brookfield's real assets filing of $152.1 billion. Credit is the other list whose published tenth name still clears $100 billion. Buyout, venture, growth equity, real assets, and secondaries each have at least one named firm under that line.
The firm index is every name that made a top ten. The private credit list is this strategy's order, from Apollo at $718.5 billion to Sixth Street at $101.6 billion. Gross Form ADV totals, commitments included, borrowings left in, each one attached to the adviser that filed it. The rank is size on that definition.