SINGAPORE – Big investors are not giving up on private markets, even as geopolitical tensions, elevated interest rates and slower exits make it harder for them to get their money back from existing investments.
At the same time, the growing race to build infrastructure for artificial intelligence is creating fresh investment opportunities, offering a potential boost to the sector.
Jeff Fine, global co-head of alternatives capital formation at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, said: “The combination of geopolitical tensions and elevated rates has slowed traditional exits, but the race to power AI infrastructure is creating the most consequential deployment window of the decade.”
About 84% of institutional investors plan to maintain or increase their investments in private markets despite challenges in recouping capital from existing investments, according to Goldman Sachs’ 2026 Global Alternatives Survey.
This is in line with 83% in 2025.
Private markets refer to investments that are not traded openly on stock exchanges, unlike shares of companies such as DBS, Singapore Airlines or Singtel. They include private equity, private credit, infrastructure and certain types of property investments.
These investments have attracted interest because they provide access to opportunities beyond listed shares and bonds. However, they can be harder to value and sell, and investors may have to wait longer to get their money back.
The study collected responses from 255 limited partners and other institutional investors, surveyed between June and August 2026.
Limited partners are passive investors who contribute capital but have no day-to-day management control and limited legal liability.
Respondents included pension funds, insurance companies, university endowments and foundations, sovereign wealth funds, asset managers and family offices from around the world.
Twenty per cent of the respondents manage more than US$100 billion (S$128 billion) in assets. By region, respondents were split among the Americas (43%); Europe, the Middle East and Africa (40%); and the Asia-Pacific (17%).
Goldman Sachs found that 37% of investors surveyed plan to allocate more money to private markets than they did in the previous year, while 47% intend to maintain their investment pace. Only 11% expect to invest less.
Despite this continued appetite, the flow of cash back to investors remains a key constraint on new commitments.
Some 35% of respondents cited a lack of distributions as a factor affecting their investment plans, up from 31% in 2025.
Distributions are payments made by investment funds to investors, typically from income generated by their holdings or proceeds from the sale of investments.
Marc Nachmann, global head of asset and wealth management at Goldman Sachs, said confidence in private markets remains intact, but investors are becoming more selective.
They are increasingly focusing on fund managers with the ability to create value within their investments and deliver the returns investors are targeting.
Despite a sharp decline in private equity deal value, Singapore remains a “crown jewel” for private equity investments in South-east Asia, according to a report by KPMG.
The report attributed Singapore’s continued appeal to its political stability, transparent legal system and position as a regional financial hub – qualities that offer investors a degree of security amid global uncertainty.
A separate report by EY found that Singapore accounted for more than 74% of the total private equity value in South-East Asia in 2025.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore is mulling over giving retail investors broader access to private market investment funds, which traditionally are accessible mainly to institutional investors and ultra-high-net-worth individuals.
Investment opportunities are emerging in several areas, particularly infrastructure and secondaries.
Infrastructure investments involve assets and services such as transport networks, utilities and facilities that support the economy. Increasing demand for computing power and data centres, driven partly by AI, is also creating opportunities for investors.
Some 43% of respondents in Goldman’s survey had a more favourable outlook for infrastructure than a year earlier, while only 7% had a less favourable view.
Secondaries, meanwhile, are transactions involving the purchase and sale of existing investments in private funds, rather than new investments directly into companies.
For example, an investor who needs cash may sell its stake in a private equity fund to another investor. The buyer takes over that stake and its potential future returns.
Private credit is another area drawing attention. This refers to loans made by non-bank lenders, often to businesses that borrow outside traditional public bond markets.
Although 35% of respondents reported a more negative outlook for private credit than a year earlier, 65% still saw opportunities as unchanged or better.
Geopolitical tensions were ranked the biggest investment risk for the third consecutive year. Some 36% of respondents cited them as their single greatest risk, ahead of inflation and the possibility of a US economic slowdown or recession.
AI is also changing how investors assess opportunities. About 34% identified the technology as the biggest force likely to reshape alternative investments over the next five years.
Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s largest alternative asset managers, with more than 30 years of experience and over US$706 billion in assets under management.