'It’s Not an AI Bubble' Cathy Seifert on the Real Gold Rush at BlackRock

Data centers to energy infrastructure Larry Fink’s plan to turn BlackRock into a global AI-driven powerhouse.

BlackRock’s next move may be a near-$100B push into data centers and power—and CFRA SVP Cathy Seifert says the rumored Aligned Data Centers and AES talks are better read as signals of a bigger pivot: driving roughly 30% of revenue from alternatives, data, and tech. Watch her connect the dots from BlackRock's Aladdin investment management platform and recent data acquisitions to why she “likes the stock,” and how this strategy could accelerate even without deal certainty.

Seifert also cuts through the AI-bubble chatter (it’s an arms race for capabilities), lays out the cleanest quality-of-earnings tell (organic AUM growth), sizes BlackRock’s crypto ETFs as relevance plays rather than needle-movers, and flags the No. 1 12-month risk (a global macro downturn). She closes with what she wants to hear from Larry Fink next—and a pragmatic take on Wall Street’s Texas migration. If you care where finance and AI are actually converging, hit play.

We dig into:

👉 How AI and data are reshaping asset management

👉 The push into alternatives and tech beyond Aladdin

👉 What’s behind the new Bitcoin ETF strategy

👉 And whether Wall Street’s next chapter moves from New York to Texas