By Telis Demos

Apollo Global Management is one of the most prominent faces of private credit. But it certainly isn't wearing the market's recent pullback.

Despite a surge of concern about private-asset firms' exposure to software companies at risk of AI disruption, shares of Apollo are now basically flat so far in February. Meanwhile, many of its peers are down sharply: Ares Management, Blackstone, Blue Owl, KKR & Co. and TPG are all off by at least 6% or more this month.

Like other alternatives managers that have reporte earnings, Apollo presented overall solid results Monday. But the recent performance gap between it and peers may say something more nuanced about the market's thinking right now.

For one, investors may be more worried about equity exposure to software companies rather than debt.

Apollo's total assets under management are generally more tilted toward credit, at around $750 billion, versus equity at around $190 billion, as of the fourth quarter. On Monday's earnings call, Apollo said that in private equity, it had "zero exposure to growth software."

In general, software-company debt can be somewhat insulated from declines in firms' growth prospects and valuations. It may be much harder now to take a software company public, or sell it at a high price.

There may also be some differentiation among software-company exposures by lenders. Speaking on its call, Apollo President James Zelter highlighted points about the software exposure of its non-traded Apollo Debt Solutions BDC. A lot of business-development companies, which lend to the software sector, have been in the market's crosshairs in recent sessions.

Zelter said ADS had "negligible" exposure to software loans paying interest in kind, rather than in cash, and to loans underwritten by revenue growth rather than by earnings, or so-called annual recurring-revenue loans.

"Folks who really are students of the product are able to really differentiate," he told analysts.

Other managers have offered their own defenses about their software portfolios. So far, Apollo's message appears to be landing.

This analysis comes from the Journal's Heard on the Street team. Subscribe to their free afternoon newsletter here.

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February 09, 2026 14:18 ET (19:18 GMT)

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