The Biggest Banker in the world has flipped

Way back in his 2021 annual CEO letter, Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, wrote:  "No issue ranks higher than climate change." It will reshape global capital flows, he said, and declared "…anyone can see the impact of climate change in the natural disasters in California or Florida."

Now though, nevermind about global extinctions and flash floods. Fink just spoke at the Davos ski club for billionaires, and declared that we need "trillions of dollars" of investment for AI. Data centres, he said, are rapidly expanding — one technology company he spoke to said that "its data centres currently use about 5 gigawatts, but by 2030 it expects to need 30 gigawatts."

But like a true banker, he doesn't see a backflip, he sees only investment opportunities — the world is short of power he says. (He doesn't say that this is in large part because BlackRock leaned on companies and countries all over the world to abandon fossil fuels.) Fink helped create the energy shortage that he now calls an investment opportunity. BlackRock is the largest asset manager in the world,  controlling $10 Trillion dollars in assets, or five times Australia's GDP. When that much money talks, everyone listens.