The Motley Fool Team, The Motley Fool
3 min read
On its third-quarter earnings call, held on Nov. 3, 2026, Apollo Global (NYSE:APO) announced record fee-related earnings, or fee-based operating profit, of $802 million. The asset manager is expanding its private credit infrastructure while shifting investments into higher-quality debt to protect against market volatility. And by scaling its origination network, the firm can capture fee income across market cycles. Three takeaways from the call highlight management’s long-term strategy.
1. Management Is De-Risking Capital by Shifting Toward Senior Secured Debt
High asset valuations and macroeconomic uncertainty led leadership to pull back from lower-rated loans. Instead, management is concentrating capital in senior secured debt and investment-grade assets, which carry credit ratings of BBB or higher. The goal is to preserve principal while still generating reliable yield.
In credit, this means moving up the stack, prioritizing senior secured. In equity, this means moving from levered to less levered or unlevered.
— Jim Zelter, President
2. Apollo Is Investing $350 Million to Modernize Private Market Infrastructure
Trading and evaluating private credit has historically suffered from slow pricing systems and limited market liquidity. To fix that, management is spending heavily on new technology to establish daily valuations, standard tracking identifiers, and automated trading platforms for alternative assets.
Over the next 24 months, we will incur roughly $350 million of planned expenses to make this happen.
— Marc Rowan, Chief Executive Officer
3. Capital Deployment Focuses on Fully Secured AI Infrastructure Projects
Financing for artificial intelligence, data centers, and power grid expansions requires massive long-term capital commitments. Apollo Global avoids taking unhedged equity risk in tech. Instead, the firm structures fully amortizing, debt-like loans backed by high-grade corporate guarantees.
While the opportunity is massive and compelling, we will remain disciplined. After 40 years in the business, my rule is simple: never take equity-like risk for debt-like returns.
— Jim Zelter, President
Looking Ahead
Origination volume reached $114 billion in the quarter, with expanding demand across power and compute sectors. Scale, flexible capital, and proprietary origination all support long-term growth as borrowers increasingly seek private solutions over public markets.
What tells me we have good momentum is the strength of the origination pipeline, which I always believe is the core of a private assets firm.
— Marc Rowan, Chief Executive Officer
