Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, has published his annual letter, where he reflects his main insights after a year of conversations with clients, policymakers, and business leaders from around the world. His starting point has been to acknowledge that no one is sure “how to navigate at this moment,” but in the face of this uncertainty, he believes that the next phase of global growth will depend on expanding participation in capital markets so that more people can benefit from the value being created.
“We live in a world where information moves instantly, and reactions arrive just as quickly. At times, it can seem like an environment driven by dopamine, in which the constant flow of stimuli rewards short-term impulses. But speed can distort perspective and crowd out long-term thinking. To be fair, in financial markets all this short-term activity serves a function,” he notes at the beginning of his letter, adding: “staying invested has mattered far more than timing the market.”
His main reflection is that the vast majority of wealth has gone to those who owned assets, not to those who earned most of their income from labor. “Since 1989, one dollar invested in the U.S. stock market has multiplied its value more than fifteen times compared to a dollar tied to the median wage. And now artificial intelligence threatens to repeat that pattern on an even larger scale, concentrating wealth among the companies and investors best positioned to capture it. This is where much of today’s economic anxiety originates: in a deeper sense that capitalism works, but not for enough people,” he argues.
A “Civic Miracle”
Faced with this reading of reality, Fink maintains that, at its best, long-term investing works a kind of “civic miracle”: “When people invest their savings—over decades, not days—capital markets put that money to work, financing companies, infrastructure, and jobs. And when that cycle happens in your own country, your future and that of your nation become linked. You help finance its growth. And that growth helps finance yours. My belief in this civic miracle is obviously shaped by my work. But I do not speak only as CEO of BlackRock: that conviction reflects decades of experience seeing how investing can help more people participate in economic growth.”
For this reason, his proposal for this “difficult moment to navigate” is to maintain the pattern behind the “civic miracle”: invest for the long term so that citizens’ wealth compounds at the same time as economies. “That is what this moment is about: expanding that opportunity. Ensuring that more people can have a stake in their country’s growth. Because today too many are left out. Therefore, the starting point must be helping people build basic financial security. And that is beginning to happen,” he adds.
Now, how does growing with your country translate in practice? In his view, everyone faces this question, though in different ways. “In the United States, it starts with early wealth-building accounts and a long-overdue conversation about Social Security. In India, one billion smartphones are becoming gateways to capital markets. In Germany, a change in the pension system could help deepen European capital markets. In Japan, a single regulatory change helped bring ten million new investors into the market in three years,” he notes.
Fink goes a step further and explains why he believes that growing with your country has never mattered more: “The world is reorganizing around self-sufficiency, and that is expensive. The enormous wealth created over recent generations went mostly to those who already owned financial assets. And now AI threatens to repeat that pattern on an even larger scale. Each of these forces, on its own, would already be reason to rethink how we invest. Together, they reinforce one conclusion: if we want more people to participate in future growth, we have to make long-term investing easier, broader, and more accessible.” After this positive message, the CEO of BlackRock also highlights a real risk that artificial intelligence could widen wealth inequality if ownership is not expanded at the same time.
AI and the Labor Market
Throughout his letter, Fink refers to the disruption generated by AI but focuses on the labor market. “It is an enormously important issue, and one that goes beyond economics. Work provides income, purpose, and dignity,” he argues, explaining that AI will transform productivity and jobs just as in previous historical moments.
“In the short term, there are indeed roles for which demand is clearly strong and that are well paid: skilled trades, especially those that build the physical infrastructure of AI, such as data centers, electrical systems, and power grids. In the United States, employment of electricians is growing at a rate three times higher than the national average. Many of these jobs pay well above the average wage, in many cases with six-figure incomes. And this is also happening in many Western economies,” he states in his letter.
His analysis goes further, acknowledging that the question is how to ensure more people can access these jobs: “The skills gap is real and requires sustained investment in training and vocational learning (…) But the problem goes beyond training. For decades, many societies have equated success with a university degree and a white-collar career. As technology reshapes parts of that landscape, we need a broader conversation about opportunity, dignity, and the value of different types of work. What are we going to do about it? It is a conversation worth having.”
BlackRock’s Positioning
Regarding BlackRock’s response in this context, Fink states that “our global and integrated platform allows us to meet our clients’ portfolio needs, across all asset classes in public and private markets, in all regions and through both active and indexed strategies, all supported by our Aladdin technology.”
In this regard, he highlights that the firm entered 2026 from a position of strength: record inflows, double-digit organic growth in base fees in the fourth quarter, a new high of $14 trillion in assets under management (AUM), and a unified, integrated platform aligned with the current opportunity set. “We help clients navigate change and invest with confidence, creating durable value for them and for you, our shareholders,” he adds in his letter.
Looking ahead to the company’s ambitions for 2030, Fink notes that they have built a strong foundation across the pillars of their platform: ETFs, Aladdin, whole portfolio solutions, fixed income, and liquidity management. He also highlights progress in organic developments in structural growth categories, including digital assets, active ETFs, model portfolios, and systematic equities.
“Looking toward 2030, we aim to exceed $35 billion in revenue, with 30% or more coming from private markets and technology. We expect that revenue growth to be supported by our targets of 5% or higher organic base fee growth and low-to-mid teens growth in technology ACV. Our goal is to nearly double adjusted operating income from 2024, along with adjusted operating margins of 45% or higher across the market cycle. We already have industry-leading margins, and we see room to expand them thanks to the growth trajectory of fee-related revenues in private markets and our highly scalable core businesses,” he concludes.
By Funds Society, Madrid