BlackRock
BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, a New York firm founded in 1988 that runs about $13.9 trillion for clients. It is not a water investor: its tracked water footprint is a single company, SOURCE Global, whose solar hydropanels pull drinking water from air. As of 2026 it has backed one water company across two deals.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
BlackRock is the largest asset manager on earth, running about $13.9 trillion for clients as of early 2026. Larry Fink and seven partners founded it in 1988 as a bond shop built around risk management, and it has since become the owner of iShares, the dominant ETF (exchange-traded fund) brand, and Aladdin, the risk-analytics system much of Wall Street runs on. Water does not appear anywhere in that story, which is exactly why its single water bet is worth a close read.
BlackRock's tracked water exposure comes down to one company: SOURCE Global, an Arizona firm whose solar-powered hydropanels pull drinking water straight out of the air. Invented by the materials scientist Cody Friesen, each panel uses sunlight to condense water vapour into clean drinking water, off the grid and off the pipe, and the company now runs panels in more than fifty countries. BlackRock came in alongside Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures and the utility Duke Energy, backing the company across two deals at the venture stage.
BlackRock reaches water the way a giant generalist does: sideways, through its sustainable-investing lens rather than any dedicated water strategy. SOURCE Global sits in its climate and impact bucket, because BlackRock has no water portfolio for it to sit in. For a newcomer the honest read is that the world's biggest investor treats water as a single climate-tech curiosity, not a thesis, and that one hydropanel maker is the whole of its water story today.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 1 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does BlackRock invest in?
- BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, investing across nearly every public and private asset class for its clients: index funds, active funds, iShares ETFs, bonds, private markets and its Aladdin technology. Within that vast platform water is a tiny footnote, currently a single tracked bet on the hydropanel maker SOURCE Global.
- Is BlackRock a water investor?
- No. BlackRock is a generalist asset manager running about $13.9 trillion, not a water fund. It appears in water coverage because of one tracked investment, SOURCE Global, an atmospheric-water company. Dedicated water funds back dozens of water companies; BlackRock's entire tracked water footprint is a single name.
- What water company has BlackRock backed?
- BlackRock's one tracked water investment is SOURCE Global, a Scottsdale, Arizona company whose solar hydropanels produce drinking water from air and sunlight. BlackRock invested across two deals at the venture stage, alongside Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Duke Energy. SOURCE now deploys its panels in more than fifty countries.
- Who runs BlackRock?
- BlackRock is led by Larry Fink, who co-founded the firm in 1988 with seven partners and serves as chairman and chief executive. Rob Kapito, another co-founder, is president. Neither is a water specialist; BlackRock's lone water bet sits inside its broader sustainable-investing and climate-technology activity.
- Is BlackRock the same as Blackstone?
- No. BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, focused on funds, ETFs and risk technology; Blackstone is a separate private-equity and real-estate firm. The two share a root, as BlackRock began inside Blackstone in 1988 before separating in 1994, but they operate as fully independent companies today.