Podcast Summary: What to expect after infra's record fundraising year

Podcast: The Infrastructure Investor Podcast
Host: PEI Group
Date: January 22, 2026
Guests/Speakers: Bruno Alvis (Editor-in-Chief, Infrastructure Investor), Zach Bentley (Americas Editor, Infrastructure Investor)

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the record fundraising year for private infrastructure in 2025, when closed end funds achieved $289 billion, setting an historic high. Hosts Bruno Alvis and Zach Bentley analyze the causes and implications of this milestone—exploring closed and open end fundraising, highlighting concentration trends, fundraising cycles, sectoral focus (especially digital and energy transition), and the emergence of secondaries. They also reflect on redemptions in open end funds and the ongoing structural changes reshaping infrastructure capital allocation.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. 2025’s Record Closed End Fundraising

• Headline Figure: $289 billion raised in 2025, significantly above the previous high watermark of ~$200 billion in 2021/22.
  [01:00–02:15]
• Why So High? 2025 fundraising includes slippage from slow 2023 processes, many of which only closed in 2025. Several mega funds heavily contributed to this spike.
• Not Sustainable Year-to-Year: The hosts agree that 2026 will not repeat this record; a significant drop is expected. Generous market estimates suggest ~$100 billion for 2026.
  Quote:

  "No, no. I think as we've discussed before, what's in this amount is a lot of 2023 processes which everyone knows were quite slow..." —Zach Bentley, 02:26

2. Fundraising Cycle: 'Time on the Road' Is the New Normal

• Extended Fundraising Timelines: Closed end funds now take 2+ years to close, with recent years averaging 25 to 30 months.
  [03:08–04:48]
• Cyclical Volume: Mega fund closes create 'bumpy' years—a bumper year (2025) is likely to be followed by a drop (2026), a trend expected to continue.
  Quote:

  “Time on the road is two year plus. That's where it's going to stay for a while.” —Bruno Alvis, 03:08

3. Acute Market Concentration

• Top Heavy: In 2025, 10 funds raised $128B—almost half the annual total—while 5 mega funds garnered one third of all capital ($96B).
  [04:48–06:28]
• Same Names, Recurring Closes: Managers like Brookfield, GIP, KKR, and StonePeak dominate, regularly cycling new/separate vehicles.

4. The ‘Barbell’ Phenomenon & LP Behavior

• Large First Closes, Slow Final Closes: Mega funds do huge initial closes but take much longer to fully wrap up, as LPs (limited partners) want to see deployment before committing further.
  [09:08–10:10]
  Quote:

  “Many of them really, they raise almost half of it by first close, or some of them do, and then it's a long slog...” —Bruno Alvis, 09:08

• Strategy Evolution: As fundraising stretches over years, sector theses and manager approaches may have to adjust to new market realities (e.g., advent of AI, changing power markets).

5. Sector Winners: Energy Transition & Digital Infrastructure

• Energy Transition: Huge sums flowed into Brookfield’s Global Transition Fund 2 and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners ($35B combined).
  [11:00–11:58]
• Digital Infra Boom: Digital/data center funds raised a record $49B in 2025, double 2024, with DigitalBridge and Blue Owl closing ~$7B each.
  Quote:

  “That accounted for 49 billion of the capital raised in 2025, and that's more than double from 2024.” —Zach Bentley, 11:58

• Digital Is Now Core: After years of industry hesitance, digital infrastructure has become a mainstream and mega-fund focus, increasingly labeled the next “AI infrastructure.”
  Quote:

  “It's digital infrastructure in the end and it is jumping into the kind of targets that the energy transition used to have.” —Bruno Alvis, 12:46

6. Fund Strategies: Core Plus, Value Add, and Secondaries

• Core Plus Dominance: Value add and core-plus funds remain favorites among LPs.
  [14:40–15:10]
• Secondaries Ascendant: Now up to ~5% of capital in 2025 (was only 1% in 2021), with prominent closes like Blackstone’s $5.5B raise. The secondaries market, while growing, remains very concentrated.
  Quote:

  “With bar one or two names... the entire infrastructure secondaries industry was on that zoom call.” —Zach Bentley, 15:10

7. Open End Funds: Cautious Rebound and Concentration

• 2025 on Track for Record: H1 saw $11B raised among 13 open end funds, echoing closed end rebound and set for best year post-2022.
  [17:46–18:51]
• Core (and a Little Core Plus): Open end strategies skew strongly to core; Blackstone the notable exception with a value add flavor but otherwise mostly core strategies.
• Yield Rebound: Open end fund yields bounced back to 3% in 2025 after previous years at 2-2.2%.
• Redemptions Uptick, but Not Crisis: Increased redemptions reflect end of lockup periods and some profit-taking, not panic as seen in real estate.
  Quote:

  “It's not the same as when investors were tumbling out of real estate vehicles. A part of this is maybe investors cashing in on a success and then redeploying elsewhere.” —Zach Bentley, 22:04

• Market Concentration: The largest three open end funds captured 86% of all capital in H1 2025.
  Quote:

  “We're back to that kind of handful of managers dominating the market and vacuuming most of the capital.” —Bruno Alvis, 22:44

8. Looking Forward: Expectations & Themes to Watch

• 2026 & Beyond: Expect lower total fundraising than 2025; cycles will be dictated by mega-fund timelines and new product launches (notably in AI/digital infra).
• Read Beyond the Headlines: Annual figures will have natural volatility due to fundraising cycles; trends are more meaningful than individual year data.
  Quote:

  “That's not necessarily a healthy way to determine how well this industry is doing ... it's just the dynamics of our market now.” —Zach Bentley, 24:21

• AI Infrastructure Funds as a Wild Card: Final closes for major AI/infra products (e.g., GIP) may not materialize in 2026—market testing is still underway.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Industry Structure:

  “There is a small counter of managers that keep trotting out new products and variations and they are the ones that have cornered that market.” —Bruno Alvis, 06:28

• On Digital’s Evolution:

  “We will remember when digital infrastructure meant a telecoms tower. Yes, that is now boring digital infrastructure.” —Bruno Alvis and Zach Bentley, 13:58

• On Secondaries’ Rise:

  “We really are talking about something which was a blip on the radar to now becoming, perhaps solidifying.” —Bruno Alvis, 16:41

• On Market Volatility:

  “If you're just looking at headline figures, you're going to see a graph going up and a graph going down and then a graph going up again. And that's not necessarily a healthy way to determine how well this industry is doing.” —Zach Bentley, 24:21

Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:00–02:15] – 2025 closed end fundraising records explained
• [03:08–04:48] – Fundraising cycle and “time on the road” analysis
• [04:48–06:28] – Concentration in fundraising and mega fund dominance
• [09:08–10:10] – The “barbell” fundraising effect and evolving LP behavior
• [11:00–11:58] – 2025 sector themes: energy transition and digital infrastructure
• [15:10–16:41] – Secondaries’ rising role and industry concentration
• [17:46–18:51] – Open end fundraising data and trends
• [22:04–23:19] – Redemptions in open end funds and market concentration
• [24:21–25:23] – Conclusions, 2026+ outlook, and advice for industry observers

Summary Wrap-Up

After a record-breaking fundraising year for infrastructure, marked by mega fund closes and acute concentration among a handful of managers, the sector is entering a “new normal” of longer fundraising cycles and highly competitive dynamics. Thematic focus is shifting rapidly, with digital infrastructure now following energy transition as a key driver, and secondaries quietly rising in importance. While cyclicality will lead to fluctuating annual numbers, structural trends—extended timelines, top-heavy fundraising, and product evolution—are set to define the market ahead. Stakeholders are urged to look beyond the headlines and focus on the deeper, more durable shifts reshaping infrastructure investment.