BlackRock is the largest publicly traded asset manager and became a major market-cap giant through index funds.
BlackRock manages money for institutions, governments, companies, and individual investors. Its iShares division is one of the world’s best-known providers of exchange-traded funds, including funds that track broad stock-market indexes. Assets under management generate fees, so growth in investment assets can support revenue even when BlackRock does not own those assets for itself.
The company was founded in 1988 by Larry Fink and partners including Robert Kapito. It began as a fixed-income and risk-management specialist before expanding into a broad global investment platform.
BlackRock is sometimes confused with Vanguard because both are prominent index-fund providers. Vanguard, however, is structured differently and is not a publicly traded company. BlackRock’s market capitalization values BlackRock’s own shares, not the much larger pool of client assets it manages.