BlackRock survey: 65% of family offices pick AI as top theme

The survey carries extra weight because it is the first conducted by Preqin, the private markets data provider BlackRock acquired in early 2025 for $3.2 billion. That acquisition appears to have given BlackRock a new lens on how wealthy families allocate, and this inaugural edition covered 206 single-family offices with a combined $491 billion in financial investments between June 13 and August 24.

Within that group, the ranking of themes beyond AI suggests families are pairing the technology with adjacent bets: robotics and automation at 53% and defense technology at 50%, followed by healthcare and longevity, biotechnology, cybersecurity, and the energy transition, each cited by more than 45%. Digital infrastructure and data centers drew 37%, a category Castro links to AI infrastructure investment opportunities.

On portfolio structure, Castro flags seemingly contradictory liquidity targets: about 26% of respondents said their target allocation to liquid assets was below 30%, while 24% reported allocations above 60%. Appetite for alternative strategies such as private equity funds rose to 32% from 26% in the previous survey, though illiquidity remained the main barrier at 54%. In Brazil, high interest rates and home bias keep a larger share in liquid assets, and family offices generally hold between 30% and 50% of wealth abroad, with most intending to move toward a 50-50 domestic-international split.