Q&A Summary

Alex: As you talk to people in the market and say origination, they think you have a team in New York and LA and Dallas and elsewhere, a handful of people working on sponsored deals. It's much broader on our platform because of the activities we’re involved in—direct to corporate on investment grade, asset-backed lending and so on. I think of this as an umbrella or an ecosystem of origination. Maybe describe that.

Chris: Origination for us is going direct to a client, to a borrower and being able to understand what problems or solutions they’re looking for and provide that on a direct basis with certainty, in a timely manner and in a customized form.

To your point, it's about 5,000 people that touch origination across our platform. We've built this ecosystem that spans across different areas from leasing to lending, from equipment to trade finance to consumer finance and mortgage, and of course corporate lending, infrastructure and transportation.

The access we have allows us to understand what our partners are looking for. Are they looking for certainty, downside protection, a draw over time or some version of deleveraging? And how can we help them solve those so they can focus on their business?

All of these asset classes require a unique approach. And then it's our non-siloed approach. We don't have walls at the firm. Having no walls is not free, but the benefit is that people can collaborate across securitization, equity, high yield and investment grade.

We can bring all of this together to provide the right underwriting and protection from a lending perspective for our investors. The access we have allows us to understand what our partners are looking for. Are they looking for certainty, downside protection, a draw over time or some version of deleveraging? And how can we help them solve those so they can focus on their business?

Diana: That's a perfect segue to where we are today. The cycle continues to shift. What trends are you seeing now and how are you positioning these origination platforms to handle that shift?

Chris: On the investor side, investors are looking for diversification, differentiated access and protection against obsolescence and other risks.

On the borrower side, they're looking for certainty. Shocks to the system reduce the certainty of capital availability. Even high-grade companies that are used to having regular market access didn’t have that same access in April 2025 or in the spring of 2023. Now some are questioning whether that access could be disrupted again.

If you need to spend on CapEx or pursue an acquisition, that certainty becomes very valuable. There are also supply chain shocks beyond market movements. We’re seeing companies build larger buffers in their supply chain and inventory to protect against disruptions in shipping routes or production workflows.

Alex: When we think about using the balance sheet to anchor deals and the difference between being a creator of risk versus a taker of risk, can you talk about the advantages of creating that risk through the lens of economics and risk management?

Chris: You're really getting at the agent versus principal concept. Historically an agent does not share in the risk, a principal does.

We cannot guarantee outcomes, but we are aligned in a shared outcome. That’s an important message to the market and to borrowers. There’s a large amount of capital today that is transient, without a principal or buy-and-hold approach.

When we tell a company we will buy and hold a meaningful portion, that stability in their capital base is valuable. That’s something they are actively looking for. At the same time, we balance diversification with alignment.

Alex: So we’re not transactional, we’re more of a partner.

Chris: Exactly. Many of the clients we work with are repeat clients. We’ve done multiple transactions with the same counterparties because they value that alignment and stability of capital.

We aim to be a solutions provider where it makes sense. We expect continued growth but in a prudent way.

Ultimately, investing is about excess return per unit of risk. The real question is how you measure that. You can only do that if you’ve seen a wide set of opportunities, have the capability to underwrite them and assign a risk score.

We see trillions of dollars of opportunities each year that we don’t invest in. Everything starts with our standards.

Q&A is edited for clarity

This interview is part of the "Inside Apollo's Private Credit Platform" series, featuring perspectives from Apollo partners. View all interviews.