Stephen Schwarzman, Co-Founder and CEO of Blackstone, told Francine Lacqua on Leaders that Blackstone bought the world's largest office portfolio for $39 billion in 2007, four times the size of any earlier deal, and made 2.2 times its money as the property market collapsed.
Nearly every other real estate investor was wiped out in that collapse. Blackstone came through because, frightened by how high prices already were, it sold half the portfolio the same day it bought it.
"Everybody who bought real estate, except one company, went busted... and we made 2.2 times our money."
Stephen built Blackstone into a firm with 275 portfolio companies, 750,000 employees and roughly $275 billion in combined revenue. Blackstone says it is now the world's largest data-center owner, a position that traces back to a single conversation in China in 2015.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 22 minutes of audio, 7 minutes of reading.
Here are the 9 moments that matter.
Leaders with Francine Lacqua · Oct 27, 2026 · 22m · 15m saved
With Stephen Schwarzman, Co-Founder and CEO of Blackstone
Key Takeaways
Three pieces of information that do not fit are how Stephen spots a market shift before others do
A 2015 bus ride with Jack Ma led Blackstone into AI, and later into a $10 billion data-center purchase
That business is now roughly 15 times larger
Stephen spent two years training John Gray before telling anyone he would be the successor
Blackstone sold half its $39 billion office portfolio the same day it bought it, then half the rest a week later
Blackstone's scale is its edge: 275 companies and roughly $275 billion in revenue
Stephen's father refused to expand his store because he was happy as he was
1. Reading Discordant Signals
Stephen says Blackstone's edge comes from the data its roughly 275 portfolio companies produce every week. Most people ignore information that does not fit their existing picture of the world, because it is uncomfortable. Stephen leans into that discomfort.
Stephen's rule of thumb: each piece of information that does not make sense raises the odds of reading a shift correctly by a third
One discordant signal gets him to the right read on a change about a third of the time. A second gets him to two-thirds, and a third settles it.
