BlackRock

BlackRock Inc. is an American global investment management corporation based in New York City.¹⁾ It is the world's largest asset manager, with US$10 trillion in assets under management as of January 2022.²⁾

BlackRock operates globally with 70 offices in 30 countries and clients in 100 countries. Because of its vast economic and political influence, BlackRock is considered a “secret world power” on its own.^{3) 4) 5)}

BlackRock is associated with the Atlantic Council, having been included on the Chairman’s Circle of their Corporate Members Program as of August 2020.⁶⁾ The company had donated at least $50,000.00 – $99,000.00 to the Atlantic Council as of 2019.⁷⁾

BlackRock is a member organization of the World Economic Forum.⁸⁾ The company's founder, Larry Fink, sits on the WEF Board of Trustees.^{9) 10)}

In April 2020, BlackRock and Microsoft announced a strategic partnership where BlackRock’s Aladdin infrastructure will be hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform to “enable continuous innovation in the financial services industry”. The two companies also outlined plans to work together on initiatives that leverage technology to improve and expand standardized, high-quality sustainability data and analytics.¹¹⁾

On August 4, 2022, Coinbase announced it had partnered with BlackRock to offer cryptocurrency trading services to its wealthy clients.¹²⁾ Part of the deal involved allowing users of BlackRock's Aladdin management platform to purchase Bitcoin through Coinbase Prime, with access to other altcoins coming at a future date.

BlackRock owns controlling shares in many of the large corporations that make up the world economy. At the end of 2014, the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute reported that 65% of Blackrock's assets under management were made up of institutional investors like pension funds and sovereign wealth funds from oil producing states.¹³⁾

Journalist Heike Buchter concludes from her research in the German newspaper Handelsblatt that “no government, no authority has such a comprehensive and deep insight into the global financial and corporate world as BlackRock.”²⁶⁾

An article published in 2018 in The Journal of Finance, Anticompetitive Effects of Common Ownership, by Jose Azar, Martin C. Schmalz, and Isabel Tecu, criticizes the empirical effect of large exchange-traded fund (ETF)-providers, namely BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street, as measured against assets managed by the largest providers based on the competitive behavior between the companies. As a result of this dominant market position, competition in the market price for goods or services only takes place only to a limited extent.²⁷⁾ According to the study, prices are about 11% higher at the expense of consumers.

In September 2019, the Center for Accountability published a report that examines BlackRock's lobbying activities in the United States and shows that BlackRock has visibly expanded its lobbying activities and donations to politicians since the 2008 financial crisis.²⁸⁾ According to the report, BlackRock tried to be classified by the US authorities as “non-systemically important” in order to avoid closer monitoring by state actors.²⁹⁾ The report concludes that “while BlackRock claims to be concerned with socially conscious behaviour, it has embraced policies that could put American consumers at risk. BlackRock's political influence could soon grow to match its power in the financial marketplace.”

• How a Company Called BlackRock Shapes Your News, Your Life, Our Future³⁰⁾