By Juliet Chung and Emily Glazer

Blackstone Chief Executive Steve Schwarzman, one of the wealthiest people in the world, is ramping up his philanthropic efforts.

The private-equity billionaire and his team are planning an expansion of his foundation, expecting it to grow into one of the 10 largest private foundations in the U.S., according to people familiar with the effort and a document reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The entity, the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation, recently hired an executive director who is expected to oversee "Mr. Schwarzman's vision for anticipated philanthropic growth," according to the document.

The substantial majority of Schwarzman's wealth, which largely is bound up in his Blackstone stake, is slated to transfer to the foundation upon his death, one of the people said. Wealth-data firm Altrata pegs Schwarzman as having an estimated net worth in early February of $43.2 billion.

Other billionaires, including Michael Dell and Ray Dalio, recently announced plans along with their spouses to donate to new "Trump Accounts" for U.S. children. Schwarzman, 78 years old, is a longtime Republican donor who gave to Trump's campaigns and was among more than three dozen people and companies who donated last year to Trump's White House ballroom. Foundations are restricted by the Internal Revenue Service from explicit political giving but can support causes that are ideologically aligned.

The Schwarzman foundation plans to continue focusing on efforts in education, culture, medical innovation and the impact of artificial intelligence, the person said, though some flexibility is built in.

"My philanthropy has brought a tremendous sense of joy and meaning to my life and I anticipate I will find more ways to give back during my lifetime," Schwarzman wrote in 2020 when he signed the Giving Pledge, whose signatories commit to giving away most of their wealth to charitable causes in their lifetimes or in their wills.

Schwarzman's plans to scale up his foundation are part of a continuing shift in the upper tiers of institutionalized philanthropy as aging, ultrawealthy donors set their giving plans and the rise of AI creates a new cluster of extremely wealthy individuals

The Gates Foundation plans to close in 2045, with Bill Gates planning to spend more than $200 billion until then fighting poverty, malnutrition and other global problems. Warren Buffett has detailed a plan for nearly all his remaining wealth after his death to go to a new charitable trust overseen by his three children.

In October, OpenAI reached a deal with the attorneys general of California and Delaware to convert to a more traditional corporate structure that also created one of the world's largest foundations. Assets of the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Foundation, created by Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang and wife Lori Huang, likely surpassed those of the MacArthur Foundation in 2025, Inside Philanthropy reported in January.

Amir Pasic, dean of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University, Indianapolis, said the biggest foundations have broad influence. "People spend a disproportionate amount of time looking at the top 10 in part because they look to them for guidance in terms of where the field is going," Pasic said, adding that what top foundations choose to focus on can reshape donor priorities more widely.

Several nonprofit heads and philanthropy experts said they would welcome more giving by major donors given the upheaval in the funding landscape for charities, partly because of cuts or freezes the Trump administration has made to nonprofit funding.

Nearly 70% of about 400 nonprofits said last year they had reduced funding from at least one source in 2025 because of federal or private funding cuts, according to a new report from the Center for Effective Philanthropy, a nonprofit that provides data and analysis to foundations and other donors. Roughly a third of nonprofit leaders said their organizations had to reduce the services they provide, even as demand had increased.

"We've never seen nonprofits reeling in the way they are reeling right now. Not even in the pandemic," said Phil Buchanan, the nonprofit's president.

The son of a Philadelphia shopkeeper, Schwarzman grew up watching his father extend credit to newly arrived immigrants to be repaid when they could, he recalled in his Giving Pledge letter. He watched his grandfather send prosthetics, wheelchairs and toys to children in Israel monthly. "When I asked him why, he explained that it was not only his obligation, but also his privilege to help others in need," the letter said.

Schwarzman founded Blackstone with Pete Peterson in 1985 after stints at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and Lehman Brothers. In 2023, Blackstone became the first among its peers to reach $1 trillion in assets under management.

He has been active philanthropically for years but historically has made gifts on an ad hoc basis. He set up one foundation, the Stephen A. Schwarzman Education Foundation, to launch a scholarship program at Tsinghua University in China in 2013. The one-year masters program, Schwarzman Scholars, is intended to help future leaders learn about China and global affairs and prevent conflict between nations.

His other foundation, the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation, has committed more than $1 billion in gifts. Schwarzman's major donations have spread his name across higher education, with an MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities at the University of Oxford and a Schwarzman Center at Yale University, an alma mater.

Catholic schools and cultural institutions including the Frick Collection in New York City and the New York Public Library -- whose flagship Fifth Avenue building bears Schwarzman's name -- also have been beneficiaries.

Schwarzman now wants to have a comprehensive approach to his giving, according to the document reviewed by the Journal. "As Mr. Schwarzman's philanthropic undertakings have increased in scale and scope, he is now looking to begin to organize and institutionalize his charitable giving activity through SASF, including existing commitments, and new initiatives that may be of interest," reads the document.

The 10 largest foundations in the U.S., based on an analysis of IRS filings by the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, ranged from $8.8 billion to $77 billion in assets as of fiscal year 2023.

Melissa Román Burch, previously chief operating officer of the New York Economic Development Corporation, began as executive director of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation in January. She is expected to guide the foundation's transformation and is working with the foundation's longtime chief executive, Amy Stursberg, before Stursberg steps down as CEO at the end of 2026.

SASF's board also has been in the process of being built out to prepare and guide the foundation through its next phase. The board includes former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, former Utah senator and onetime GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and L. Rafael Reif, former president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Write to Juliet Chung at Juliet.Chung@wsj.com and Emily Glazer at Emily.Glazer@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Melissa Román Burch was previously chief operating officer of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. "Blackstone Founder Steve Schwarzman Aims to Build a Top 10 Private Foundation" at 6:37 a.m. ET incorrectly said that the name of the organization is the New York Economic Development Corporation.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 10, 2026 09:52 ET (14:52 GMT)

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