KKR is an American investment firm. It made its name in private equity: its 1989 buy-out of RJR Nabisco for $25bn, a conglomerate whose holdings included Winston cigarettes, marked the peak of the first wave of leveraged buy-outs.
Together with Apollo and Blackstone, the three firms have amassed $2.6trn of assets under their control, up from $570bn a decade ago. KKR completed its acquisition of Global Atlantic, a life insurer, enabling it to manage insurance assets alongside its investment business. It has launched products mixing public and private debt for retail investors through a partnership with Capital Group.
KKR has likened the present innovation in private credit to the launch of the iPhone in 2007. In 2023 it agreed to buy as much as $44bn in buy-now, pay-later debt from PayPal.
In June 2025 KKR decided not to inject fresh cash into Thames Water, Britain's largest and most indebted water utility, after ten weeks of due diligence.
KKR partly manages FS KKR Capital Corp, a public BDC. By early 2026 it could be purchased for less than half of its net asset value.
KKR said 7% of its total assets under management were in the software industry.
If you're right 90% of the time, why quibble about the remaining 3%?