Blackstone CEO recollects company journey on 40-year anniversary
December 18, 2025 • 4m 44s
Becky Quick (Squawk Box Anchor)
00:00.390
joining
us
right
now
with
a
look
back
and
a
look
ahead
is
the
firm
CEO
chairman
and
co-founder
steve
schwarzman
and
steve
thank
you
for
taking
the
time
to
sit
down
Stephen A. Schwarzman (CEO, Chairman & Co-Founder)
00:08.590
with
us
well
it's
fun
for
me
Becky Quick (Squawk Box Anchor)
00:10.190
it
is
fun
for
us
too
we
don't
get
the
chance
to
do
this
very
often
i
forty
years
since
you
built
this
firm
coming
out
with
four
hundred
thousand
dollars
in
capital
where
you
sat
down
and
kind
of
branched
out
into
this
new
and
fledgling
private
equity
world
that
you
helped
build
Becky Quick (Squawk Box Anchor)
00:27.030
what
do
you
think
forty
years
later
with
a
market
cap
of
what
is
it
just
about
a
hundred
and
eighty
seven
billion
dollars
today
Stephen A. Schwarzman (CEO, Chairman & Co-Founder)
00:33.430
well
it's
been
two
forty
at
the
top
yeah
so
that's
been
quite
a
journey
and
it's
been
fascinating
like
all
entrepreneurial
types
of
enterprises
you
don't
know
quite
where
you're
going
but
when
we
started
we
knew
we'd
be
doing
you
know
private
equity
we
called
it
LBO
's
and
we
Stephen A. Schwarzman (CEO, Chairman & Co-Founder)
00:56.270
also
knew
besides
our
advisory
business
that
we'd
be
starting
new
businesses
that
was
part
of
our
strategic
plan
and
we
were
going
to
go
into
new
money
management
areas
that
we
thought
would
be
great
for
customers
that
we
also
thought
we
could
build
into
very
big
businesses
and
Stephen A. Schwarzman (CEO, Chairman & Co-Founder)
01:14.350
we've
been
following
the
same
strategy
ever
since
it's
different
than
almost
everyone
else
who
just
said
i'll
do
LBO
's
i'll
do
private
equity
because
i
always
worried
that
if
you
stay
in
one
business
if
anything
goes
wrong
with
it
then
that's
not
so
good
so
i
like
the
idea
idea
Stephen A. Schwarzman (CEO, Chairman & Co-Founder)
01:34.030
of
doing
new
things
i
i
actually
find
it
fascinating
and
it
ends
up
being
a
great
business
strategy
because
the
people
who
work
here
don't
have
glass
ceilings
we're
always
doing
something
new
they
can
move
to
those
businesses
so
it's
it's
great
for
people
retention
and
Stephen A. Schwarzman (CEO, Chairman & Co-Founder)
01:52.710
satisfaction
it's
great
for
customers
and
now
we
have
such
a
broad
platform
that
when
we
talk
to
an
institutional
investor
for
example
it's
really
like
we
can
bring
you
a
solution
for
almost
anything
you
want
we
we
have
eighty
five
strategies
now
we
started
with
one
no
it
sounds
Stephen A. Schwarzman (CEO, Chairman & Co-Founder)
02:14.590
like
a
lot
and
we
have
almost
edging
up
on
one
point
three
trillion
dollars
from
from
four
hundred
thousand
that
you
were
holding
right
quite
gradually
those
are
like
two
new
products
a
year
in
forty
years
so
it
sounds
like
we're
doing
a
lot
but
we're
extremely
careful
that
we
Stephen A. Schwarzman (CEO, Chairman & Co-Founder)
02:38.510
only
do
stuff
that's
great
for
customers
great
for
performance
and
if
we
can
do
that
they
become
very
happy
and
they
give
us
more
money
one
Becky Quick (Squawk Box Anchor)
02:48.510
of
your
newer
businesses
that
you
announced
last
year
you
would
like
to
be
the
biggest
end
is
being
an
owner
of
data
centers
that's
been
a
huge
move
and
obviously
it's
been
driving
major
markets
higher
driving
the
averages
higher
but
there
are
some
concerns
about
AI
in
general
Becky Quick (Squawk Box Anchor)
03:06.550
and
data
centers
in
particular
as
well
yesterday
it
was
news
about
an
oracle
data
center
in
michigan
and
blue
owl
financing
no
longer
being
involved
with
that
your
name
was
one
of
the
ones
mentioned
as
a
potential
financier
for
for
that
particular
project
what
can
you
tell
us
Becky Quick (Squawk Box Anchor)
03:22.680
about
a
that
project
but
B
maybe
overall
where
you
see
data
centers
and
where
that's
headed
Stephen A. Schwarzman (CEO, Chairman & Co-Founder)
03:28.120
well
AI
as
as
you
know
becky
because
you
covered
in
twenty
eighteen
twenty
nineteen
a
gift
i
made
to
MIT
to
start
their
college
of
computing
of
four
artificial
intelligence
a
big
deal
but
you
were
far
ahead
of
your
peers
and
where
everybody
else
and
that
was
that
was
way
before
Stephen A. Schwarzman (CEO, Chairman & Co-Founder)
03:52.070
you
know
chat
GBT
yeah
and
so
we
we
saw
that
there
would
be
a
new
world
being
created
by
artificial
intelligence
and
you
know
it's
a
bit
like
thomas
edison
inventing
the
use
of
electricity
in
the
eighteen
eighties
with
the
electric
light
bulb
and
that's
sort
of
what's
happening
Stephen A. Schwarzman (CEO, Chairman & Co-Founder)
04:16.670
now
and
and
you
need
the
data
centers
to
create
the
use
of
artificial
intelligence
we
could
see
there'd
be
an
explosion
in
this
area
and
we
bought
a
company
called
QTS
ten
billion
dollar
purchase
for
ten
billion
dollars
in
twenty
twenty
one
and
it's
now
fourteen
times
the
size
Stephen A. Schwarzman (CEO, Chairman & Co-Founder)
04:42.470
in
four
years
Autoscroll