Ares Management posts a record $36 billion fundraising quarter, with $23.7 billion of it going to credit, as the asset class enters what analysts call a new era of selectivity
Ares Management raised a record $36 billion across its strategies in the second quarter of 2026, its largest fundraising quarter to date, according to Reuters. Credit strategies took $23.7 billion of that total and real assets a further $9.7 billion, with the flagship asset-based finance fund alone raising $8.5 billion. Group assets under management rose 17% to $671.3 billion. The quarter caps a period of intense capital-raising across the private credit market even as market participants debate the durability of current fundamentals. Partners Group, writing in a detailed market perspective, argues that private credit is entering a new phase defined by greater bifurcation and wider dispersion of returns. The firm identifies software companies as carrying the most debated risk within private credit portfolios, given the potential for AI disruption to erode revenue models underpinning a significant portion of the US direct lending market. Software accounts for roughly 20% of the total US direct lending market, though Partners Group estimates the genuinely at-risk portion is closer to 7% when excluding infrastructure and vertical application software with stronger moats. The broader market backdrop remains constructive at the aggregate level: growth is moderating but not deteriorating, recession risks are described as contained, and rates, while repriced higher on geopolitical volatility, are broadly stable. However, Partners Group argues that the era when managers could simply build diversified portfolios, apply leverage, and collect spread is ending. Defaults are expected to rise not from macro stress but from structural, company-level disruption. Separately, , a start-up founded by Ryan Williams, has raised in seed funding to automate fragmented workflows for private credit managers, including document management, portfolio monitoring, and month-end reporting. Williams co-founded the real estate investment platform Cadre alongside Josh and Jared Kushner in 2014.