Apollo is an American private-credit giant founded by Leon Black and other alumni of Drexel Burnham Lambert. Black stepped down in 2021 over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. It is now run by Marc Rowan, who has described the savings of ordinary Americans as the company's biggest opportunity and sees private credit as the solution to the fragility of banks. Apollo made its name in private equity and merged with its insurance arm in 2022. Together with Blackstone and KKR, the three firms have amassed $2.6trn in assets, almost five times as much as a decade ago.
Apollo started Athene, its insurance arm, in 2009—a decade before many rivals cottoned on to the idea. Athene now sells more annuities than any other insurer in America. In June 2024 Apollo supplied $11bn to Intel's Irish manufacturing facility; the transaction was structured to furnish $4.7bn of investment-grade debt for Athene's balance-sheet, equivalent to 15% of the insurer's capital.
Apollo originated $220bn across its businesses in 2024. Nearly half came from a stable of 16 lending firms owned by Apollo, Athene and affiliated funds, including a former division of GE Capital and Atlas, the securitisation business of the former Credit Suisse. No firm has made more effort to recreate GE Capital's operations than Apollo, assembling a similarly eclectic range of asset-based lenders including an aircraft-lending business previously owned by GE and a mid-market corporate-lending division staffed with former GE Capital employees. It expects to surpass $275bn annually by the end of the decade. Citigroup agreed to arrange $25bn of corporate loans before funnelling them to Apollo funds—the biggest bank-to-private-credit partnership so far.
Apollo has pioneered a novel form of private lending in which a loan is considered by rating agencies to be an "equity" investment for the recipient—leaving its credit rating intact—while furnishing the lender's balance-sheet with investment-grade debt.
In February 2025 Apollo and State Street jointly launched PRIV, the first exchange-traded fund containing private assets. To ensure the minute-by-minute liquidity an ETF requires, the fund's private holdings are normally limited to 35% of total assets. The Securities and Exchange Commission has expressed concerns that PRIV may not be sufficiently liquid and could struggle to comply with valuation rules.
Apollo's uniquely important role in debt markets has raised the possibility that it could be designated a systemic institution, as GE Capital was from 2013 to 2016, which would subject it to greater regulatory oversight.
In the first quarter of 2026 Apollo limited redemptions in its private BDCs to 5% despite requests of 11.2%.
Apollo got its start buying distressed debt from the lifeless carcass of Executive Life, a life insurer that collapsed during the junk-bond bust of the late 1980s.
Apollo said its exposure to software in its private-equity funds "rounds to zero".
Just because your doctor has a name for your condition doesn't mean he knows what it is.