Key facts
- Stephen Schwarzman co-founded Blackstone with Peter G. Peterson in 1985.
- Blackstone is one of the world's largest alternative investment firms.
- Schwarzman received $1.24 billion in compensation in 2025.
- Schwarzman plans to transfer the majority of his $48 billion fortune to his foundation.
- Schwarzman is a major Republican political donor and supporter of Donald Trump.
Stephen Schwarzman, the co-founder and CEO of Blackstone, began his career at Lehman Brothers before establishing one of the world's largest alternative investment firms. He has also become a significant political donor and philanthropist.
Schwarzman was born in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, in 1947. He earned a bachelor's degree from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. After graduating in 1972, he joined Lehman Brothers as a banker, rising to managing director in 1978 and later chairing the firm's mergers and acquisitions committee.
In 1985, Schwarzman, along with Peter G. Peterson, founded Blackstone with $400,000 in initial capital. The firm grew to manage private equity, real estate, and credit assets. When Blackstone went public in 2007, Schwarzman's stake sale yielded $684 million, with his remaining shares valued at $9.1 billion. In 2025, his compensation reached $1.24 billion, making him one of the highest-paid executives in the U.S.
Schwarzman has committed to giving the majority of his wealth to charitable causes and plans to transfer most of his estimated $48 billion fortune to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation upon his death. His philanthropic efforts focus on education, culture, medical innovation, and artificial intelligence, including significant donations to MIT and the University of Oxford. He also founded the Schwarzman Scholars program at Tsinghua University and funded a center at Yale University and the New York Public Library.
Schwarzman has been a prominent Republican political donor. He chaired President Donald Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum in 2017 and contributed millions to Republican candidates and causes in the 2020 election cycle. After initially criticizing the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot and stating he would not support Trump's 2024 campaign, Schwarzman reversed his position in May 2024, citing a desire for "change."