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Blue Owl Capital and Ares Management are alternative asset managers with credit businesses, but they organize broader platforms differently. As of June 30, 2026, Blue Owl reported $319 billion in assets under management (AUM), while Ares reported approximately $671 billion. Those company-reported figures indicate that Ares had the larger reported platform by AUM on that date; they do not establish which company is more profitable, performs better, or is the better investment.
How Blue Owl differs from Ares
Both firms invest and manage capital across private markets, including credit. Blue Owl describes three platforms: Credit, Real Assets and GP Strategic Capital. Ares describes five: Credit, Real Estate, Infrastructure, Private Equity and Secondaries. The labels and groupings reflect each firm’s own organization, so they are not a direct, one-for-one map of equivalent businesses.
Blue Owl’s three platforms
Blue Owl describes itself as a global alternative asset manager deploying private capital through Credit, Real Assets and GP Strategic Capital. Its 2025 Form 10-K reported year-end 2025 AUM of $157.8 billion in Credit, $80.6 billion in Real Assets and $69.1 billion in GP Strategic Capital. Those platform figures add to the company’s reported $307.4 billion total AUM for December 31, 2025. Blue Owl’s 2025 Form 10-K also reported $187.7 billion in fee-paying AUM (FPAUM) on that date. [c001]
Ares’s five platforms
Ares lists Credit, Real Estate, Infrastructure, Private Equity and Secondaries. Its company overview describes Credit as financing for middle-market and large-cap businesses; Infrastructure as investment in areas such as digital infrastructure, power, midstream, transport and utilities; and Private Equity as focused on middle-market companies. These are Ares’s descriptions of its activities, not independent assessments of performance. Ares’s business overview outlines the platform. [c003]
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Which is bigger, Blue Owl or Ares?
By company-reported AUM on the same date, Ares reported the larger platform on June 30, 2026:
| Manager | Reported AUM | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Blue Owl Capital Inc. | $319 billion | June 30, 2026 |
| Ares Management Corporation | Approximately $671 billion | June 30, 2026 |
Blue Owl’s figure is reported on its company overview, and Ares’s figure on its investor-relations materials. Blue Owl and Ares investor relations provide the respective figures. [c002] [c003] AUM is a company-reported measure, and these sources do not establish fully harmonized definitions. The comparison supports a scale statement by reported AUM only—not a conclusion about assets that generate fees, investment returns, risk, earnings or stock value.
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Why AUM and fee-paying AUM are not interchangeable
Blue Owl’s year-end 2025 filing distinguishes $307.4 billion in total AUM from $187.7 billion in FPAUM. The company explains that AUM can include assets that are fee-exempt or not yet paying fees, while it generally earns management fees on FPAUM. The two measures therefore answer different questions: AUM describes the broader reported asset base; FPAUM identifies assets included in the company’s fee-paying measure. These are December 31, 2025 figures, not the June 2026 headline AUM comparison. [c001] [c008]
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Blue Owl Capital and OBDC are not the same company
Blue Owl Capital Inc. is the alternative asset manager. Blue Owl Capital Corporation (NYSE: OBDC) is a business development company (BDC) managed by Blue Owl, focused on direct lending to U.S. middle-market companies.
OBDC reported a $15.0 billion portfolio at fair value across 229 companies as of June 30, 2026. At that date, 79% of its investments were senior secured and 96% were floating-rate debt investments, according to its investor page. [c005] These describe OBDC’s portfolio, not Blue Owl Capital Inc.’s company-wide AUM or the entire Blue Owl platform.
Ares Management and ARCC are not the same company
Ares Management Corporation is the asset manager. Ares Capital Corporation (ARCC) is a publicly traded BDC externally managed by Ares Capital Management, a subsidiary of Ares Management. ARCC’s 2025 Form 10-K reported approximately $31.2 billion in total assets as of December 31, 2025. [c006]
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That ARCC total-assets figure cannot be directly ranked against OBDC’s $15.0 billion portfolio fair value: the figures use different measures and dates. Neither number represents the AUM of its associated manager.
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Ares reported $113.2 billion of gross new capital raised across its vehicles during the year ended December 31, 2025, according to its 2025 Form 10-K. That is a fundraising measure for that year, not an AUM figure or a return measure. [c004]
Ares CEO Michael Arougheti said, “As both institutional and individual investors continue to increase allocations to private market alternatives, we believe we are well positioned to capitalize on a number of growth initiatives and strategic priorities in years to come.” This is management’s view of its prospects, not an independently verified forecast. [c007]
The available business and scale figures describe platform breadth, reported AUM and selected BDC portfolio characteristics. They do not establish which manager’s stock, funds or investment vehicles are preferable; that judgment would require comparable evidence on matters such as valuation, fees, performance and risk.
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