Carlyle generated $16.8 billion of inflows during the second quarter of 2026 as investors committed $5 billion to the global investment firm’s next vintage U.S. buyout fund. The earmarked buyout commitments represented approximately 30% of Carlyle’s total quarterly inflows. They also supplied about 78% of the $6.4 billion raised across the Global Private Equity segment.
Carlyle said the fundraising activity occurred across all three of its segments. In addition to the U.S. buyout commitments, inflows benefited from secondaries and portfolio-finance fundraising at Carlyle AlpInvest, three new U.S. collateralized loan obligations, and reinsurance activity within Global Credit.
Trailing-12-month inflows reached $55.8 billion, increasing 10% from the preceding comparable period.
Carlyle raised $29.8 billion during the first half of 2026.
The fundraising occurred alongside high levels of deployment and realization activity.
Carlyle deployed $14.3 billion during the quarter and $53 billion during the trailing 12 months.
Quarterly deployment was concentrated in U.S. liquid credit, direct lending, opportunistic credit, and U.S. buyout investments.
Carry funds generated $6.7 billion of realized proceeds during the quarter.
Trailing-12-month realized proceeds increased 12% to $36.8 billion, including exits across Japan and U.S. buyout funds and activity within Carlyle AlpInvest.
Carry funds appreciated 3% during the quarter and 7% over the trailing 12 months.
The combination of fundraising, deployment, realizations, and appreciation increased Carlyle’s total assets under management to $485 billion.
AUM increased 2% sequentially and 4% year over year.
Global Credit remained Carlyle’s largest segment with $211 billion of AUM.
Global Private Equity managed $163 billion, while Carlyle AlpInvest reached $112 billion.
The year-over-year growth was not evenly distributed.
Carlyle AlpInvest AUM increased 16%, while Global Credit grew 4%.
Global Private Equity declined 1% because of substantial realization activity.
The Global Private Equity segment produced $20.1 billion of realized proceeds during the trailing 12 months.
Those distributions reduced existing assets even as Carlyle raised commitments for the next U.S. buyout vintage and generated portfolio appreciation.
Global Private Equity deployed $4 billion during the quarter.
Notable investments included Surventis and MAI Capital.
The segment generated $3.9 billion of realized proceeds, including activity involving Vantage Group Holdings, Rigaku, and Iwasaki Electric.
The segment’s fee revenue declined slightly to $304.3 million from $309.3 million.
Fund management fees fell to $283.4 million from $302.4 million, partially offset by higher transaction and portfolio-advisory fees and the beginning of fee-related performance revenue.
Global Private Equity Fee Related Earnings declined to $133.6 million from $143.6 million.
Distributable Earnings fell to $218.5 million from $231.9 million despite higher realized net performance revenue.
Global Credit delivered stronger underlying earnings growth.
Segment AUM increased to $211 billion as $5.8 billion of quarterly inflows and portfolio activity exceeded outflows.
Trailing-12-month inflows reached $25 billion.
Global Credit deployed $7.1 billion during the quarter and $27.6 billion during the trailing 12 months.
Its quarterly fee revenue increased 23% to $294.8 million, despite lower fund management fees, as transaction and portfolio-advisory fees more than doubled and fee-related performance revenue increased.
Global Credit Fee Related Earnings increased approximately 24% to $137.6 million.
Distributable Earnings rose about 31% to $158 million, supported partly by higher realized performance revenue.
Carlyle AlpInvest also generated strong growth.
AUM increased 16% year over year to $112 billion following $20.2 billion of trailing-12-month inflows.
Quarterly fundraising was concentrated in secondaries, portfolio finance, and Carlyle AlpInvest Private Markets vehicles.
AlpInvest fee revenue increased approximately 26% to $160.2 million.
Fee Related Earnings rose about 27% to $86.5 million, while Distributable Earnings increased approximately 23% to $95.8 million.
Companywide Fee Related Earnings reached a quarterly record of $357.7 million, increasing 11% from $323.3 million.
The FRE margin was 47%, compared with 48% during the prior-year quarter.
The record recurring earnings were achieved even though consolidated fund management fees declined.
Segment fund management fees fell to $560.1 million from $589.6 million.
Transaction and portfolio-advisory fees more than doubled to $110.5 million, while fee-related performance revenue increased to $88.7 million from $38.7 million.
Total segment fee revenue consequently increased 12% to $759.3 million.
The shift indicates that the quarter’s recurring-earnings growth depended on transaction activity and performance-related fees as well as the size of Carlyle’s fee-paying asset base.
Distributable Earnings reached $472.3 million, increasing approximately 10% and reaching the highest quarterly level in nearly four years.
After-tax DE per share increased to $1.07 from $0.91.
The non-GAAP result was substantially higher than GAAP pre-tax income of $273.8 million.
The reconciliation included adjustments for unrealized performance revenue, unrealized principal investments, equity-based compensation, acquisition costs, and noncontrolling interests.
GAAP net income attributable to Carlyle shareholders declined to $137.1 million, or $0.37 per diluted share, from $319.7 million, or $0.87 per share.
Total reported revenue declined to $1.12 billion from $1.57 billion because investment income and performance allocations were substantially lower.
Performance accounting produced a particularly sharp difference between GAAP and segment results.
GAAP net performance revenue was negative $48.9 million.
Realized net performance revenue included in Carlyle’s segment reporting was positive $114.6 million, creating a difference of $163.5 million.
Net accrued performance revenue declined 7% sequentially to approximately $2.42 billion.
The decrease reflected carry realizations and lower accrued performance revenue from Carlyle’s seventh U.S. buyout fund, partly offset by appreciation in international energy investments.
Carlyle’s fourth Japan buyout fund generated carried interest for the first time during the quarter.
Its sixth U.S. buyout fund and second credit-opportunities fund also contributed to realized net performance revenue.
Pending fee-earning AUM reached $28 billion, increasing 57% year over year and rising from $21 billion at the end of the first quarter.
Pending assets represent raised commitments that begin generating recurring management fees when fees are activated or the capital is invested, depending on the applicable structure.
Pending fee-earning AUM equaled approximately 8.4% of the company’s current $334 billion fee-earning asset base.
The increase provides a potential source of future management-fee growth as investment periods begin and commitments become activated.
Perpetual fee-earning AUM reached $113 billion and represented 34% of total fee-earning AUM.
Available capital for future investment increased 10% to $97 billion.
Carlyle returned substantial capital to its own shareholders during the quarter.
The company repurchased and retired 6.6 million shares at a total cost of $304.1 million.
Outstanding shares declined from 359.8 million at the end of the first quarter to 353.4 million.
The board maintained its quarterly dividend at $0.35 per share.
Carlyle retained approximately $1.6 billion of capacity under its $2 billion share-repurchase authorization at the end of June.
One consolidated infrastructure-fund investment continued to weigh on reported results.
Carlyle recognized an additional unrealized loss of approximately $47 million during the quarter.
The cumulative company-attributable unrealized loss reached approximately $222 million and is expected to become realized when the investment is sold, which Carlyle currently anticipates later in 2026.
The $5 billion of commitments to Carlyle’s next U.S. buyout fund demonstrate continued institutional demand for its flagship private-equity strategy.
However, the quarter also shows that Carlyle’s broader earnings growth is increasingly supported by Global Credit, AlpInvest, transaction fees, and fee-related performance revenue rather than traditional buyout management fees alone.
KEY QUOTES:
“The second quarter was one of Carlyle’s strongest quarters in recent years, underscoring the power of our diversified platform.”
“We delivered record Fee Related Earnings, our highest Distributable Earnings in nearly four years, alongside strong fundraising and exceptional realization activity.”
“Carlyle continues to distinguish itself as an industry leader and an outlier in returning capital to our clients, distributing nearly $7 billion during the quarter and $37 billion over the past year.”
Harvey M. Schwartz, Chief Executive Officer Of Carlyle