Thread by @carlothinks

The U.S. Government can’t operate without it.
Global economy can’t function without it.
And Wall Street can’t trade without it.

Yet most people have no idea what BlackRock actually does.

Here’s how BlackRock built a $10 trillion empire that quietly controls everything: 🧵

BlackRock is the most powerful company you’ve never heard of.

It’s used to:

Manage governments’ crises
Control retirement funds
Decide corporate policies
Influence Wall Street

By the end of this thread, you'll realize it might be controlling what you see, buy & believe 👇

It all started in 1988.

Larry Fink, a Wall Street banker, had one mission:

Stop financial institutions from being blindsided by risk.

Investors thought it was boring.

Too technical. Too niche.

But Fink built a system so good, the entire financial world now depends on it.

So what does BlackRock actually do?

It manages money. A lot of money.

Over $10 trillion in assets:

Your retirement savings
Government pensions
Corporate treasuries
University endowments

If you own an ETF or mutual fund, chances are BlackRock manages it.

But managing money is just the start.

BlackRock’s true power comes from its software: Aladdin.

It tracks:

Bonds
Stocks
Derivatives
Entire portfolios

Then runs simulations to predict how markets will move under any scenario.

Aladdin is so powerful that even BlackRock’s competitors use it.

It’s the operating system of finance.

Banks, insurance companies, even governments rely on it to measure risk.

Every day, it scans portfolios worth trillions of dollars.

And because BlackRock manages so much money, it ends up owning everything.

Apple.
Microsoft.
Google.
Amazon.

It’s one of the biggest shareholders in almost every major company.

That means it has voting power in corporate boardrooms across the world.

Sometimes it’s a savior.

In 2008, the U.S. government called BlackRock to clean up the toxic mortgage mess.

In 2020, the Federal Reserve turned to BlackRock to manage its emergency bond-buying program.

When there’s a crisis, BlackRock is on speed dial.

But not all use cases are heroic.

Critics call it the “shadow government of finance.”

Why?

Because a private company shouldn’t have this much influence over:

Which companies get funded
Which policies corporations adopt
Where trillions of retirement dollars flow

Here’s the wild part:

BlackRock is bigger than the GDP of Japan, Germany, or India.

It’s the largest money manager in history.

And thanks to its ETFs and Aladdin, it’s still growing.

Now?

BlackRock is pushing deep into AI-powered investing.

It’s expanding in China.

And it’s doubling down on “sustainable” funds giving it even more leverage to dictate corporate behavior worldwide.

And investors love it.

Because BlackRock isn’t just another investment firm.

It’s the infrastructure of global finance.

A $10 trillion empire that runs quietly in the background…

Shaping markets, companies, and even governments.

But what do you think:

Is BlackRock simply the backbone of global finance?

Or is it too much power for one private company to hold?

Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed:

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