Who Owns BlackRock?

By Motley Fool Staff – Updated Jan 9, 2026 at 12:56 PM EST | Fact-checked by Parker Hicks

Key Points

BlackRock, founded in 1988, is the largest asset manager worldwide with over $10 trillion in assets.
The company is a major player in ETF management, including iShares, and has influential government partnerships.
Institutional investors like Vanguard and State Street are major shareholders, holding significant company stakes.
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Founded in 1988, BlackRock (BLK -0.36%) is a relatively new investment company. But it's become responsible for keeping tabs on more than $10 trillion in wealth, making it the world's largest asset manager. Let's explore more about this investment giant, including its history, owners, managers, and outlook.

What is BlackRock?

For a company that manages more than $10 trillion in assets -- equivalent to roughly 34% of the total GDP of the United States -- BlackRock has kept a relatively low public profile. The New York-based company was founded in 1988 to manage risk and fixed-income assets. Since then, it's diversified to become one of the largest managers of index funds, managing the iShares group of exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

BlackRock launched its initial public offering in 1999 when it reported only $165 billion in assets under management (AUM). A series of mergers and acquisitions, however, dramatically increased the company's profile and assets.

BlackRock also was an integral part of the cleanup of toxic assets in the wake of the Great Recession, when the U.S. Treasury Department hired it to manage subprime securities held by Bear Stearns, American International Group (AIG -1.59%), Freddie Mac (FMCC -0.43%), and Morgan Stanley (MS -2.06%), among others.

The company became a major player in the ETF market in 2009 when it swung a $13.5 billion deal to buy a Barclays (BCS +0.46%) unit that included the iShares line of funds. It was added to the S&P 500 index in 2011.

The company was called on again by the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic response effort, managing two corporate bond-buying programs and the purchase of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) guaranteed by Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae (FNMA -0.92%), and Freddie Mac.

The scope and reach of BlackRock has recently been on display around the globe. It has reached an agreement to help Ukraine rebuild its economy after the war with Russia is over; its spot Bitcoin ETF was the first to reach $1 billion in volume; it was hired to sell the assets of Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank when they failed; and it became the first global asset manager to be approved for operations in China.

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Who are BlackRock's largest shareholders?

BlackRock, which has offered shares to the public since its 1999 IPO, is mostly owned by institutional investors, including the Vanguard Group, State Street Corp. (STT -0.44%), Bank of America (BAC -1.32%), and Temasek Holdings, a Singapore state-owned conglomerate. The largest investors include:

BlackRock's Largest Shareholders
Company	Number of shares	% of total shares	Worth (in billions)
Vanguard	13.9M	9.04%	15.5
BlackRock	10.1M	6.53%	11.2
State Street	6.3M	4.05%	6.9
Temasek	5.1M	3.29%	5.6
Bank of America	4.8M	3.12%	5.3

Who is on BlackRock’s board of directors?

BlackRock has 18 members on its board of directors, they are as shown below:

BlackRock's board of directors
Name	Title
Laurence Fink	CEO of BlackRock
Pamela Daley	Former Senior VP of Corporate Business Development for GE
Gregory Fleming	President and CEO of Rockefeller Capital
William Ford	Chairman and CEO of Gneeral Atlantic
Fabrizo Freda	Former President and CEO of the Estée Lauder Companies
Murry Gerber	Former Chairman and CEO of EQT Corporation
Margaret "Peggy" Johnson	CEO of Agility Robotics
Robert Kaptio	President of BlackRock
Cheryl Mills	Founder and CEO of BlackIvy Group
Kathleen Murphy	Former President of Personal Investing at Fidelity
Amin Nasser	President and CEO of the Saudi Arabian Oil Company
Gordon Nixon	Former President and CEO of Royal Bank of Canada
Adebayo "Bayo" Ogunlesi	Chairman and CEo of Global Infrastruture Partners
Kristin Peck	CEO of Zoetis, Inc
Charles Robbins	Chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems
Hans Vestberg	Chairman and CEO of Verizon
Susan Wagner	Former Vice Chairman of BlackRock
Mark Wilson	CEO of Reinsurance Intelligence Quotient

Board of Directors

A group of elected individuals responsible for overseeing the activities of a company and representing shareholders.

The bottom line

BlackRock may be the biggest asset manager on the block, but that doesn't always guarantee success. Although it was the first firm to record $10 trillion in assets under management, it's also posted the record for the most client money lost by a firm over a six-month period. As the market staggered in 2022, the company reported losing $1.7 trillion in assets. In addition, it's been whipsawed by criticism from both sides for its commitment to ESG investing and its role in financing climate change acceleration.

Keep in mind that if you invest in BlackRock, you're not investing in a company with $10 trillion in assets -- you're investing in a company that manages $10 trillion in assets. Although its role as one of the world's preeminent ETF managers may be extremely attractive, you should treat BlackRock like any other individual stock, as a long-term, buy-and-hold investment that's only part of a diversified portfolio.

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