BlackRock COO Rob Goldstein discusses the firm's early technology history, the development of its iconic Aladdin risk management platform, and how BlackRock navigates the tension of being both a major user and provider of AI. He shares his perspective on a coming 'SaaSpocalypse,' the practical challenges of token consumption and compute constraint, and the future of private markets.
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Highlights
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Aladdin: The Technology That Powers Global Finance
BlackRock's Aladdin platform, originally built for internal risk management, has become the central nervous system for the world's largest asset managers, banks, and insurers.
BlackRock simultaneously consumes AI for internal efficiency and sells AI capabilities to clients, creating tension over how to allocate scarce compute resources.
Firms like BlackRock must manage token consumption — the unit of AI processing — and navigate the physical limits of GPU availability as AI becomes central to operations.
Goldstein discussed how BlackRock sees the evolution of private markets from niche alternatives to mainstream investment vehicles enabled by technology.