CONNOR TESKEY ON BAM’S Q3 FUNDRAISING AND INFRASTRUCTURE GROWTH WITH BLOOMBERG TV - BROOKFIELD ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD

Brookfield Asset Management raising $25 billion in the third quarter as it positions itself as a key player funding the AI build-out and wider infrastructure build- out. I spoke with Brookfield Asset management CEO Connor Teske following the results. The momentum's incredible. 15% earnings growth, another record quarter, $160 billion raised in the last 12 months. And as you say, the largest sector of growth within Brookfield right now is infrastructure. We've raised $50 billion over the last 12 months. That's an all-time high for Brookfield. We're quite confident that is an all time high for the alternative sector. And it's very representative of the demand and the opportunity set we see in that space, both the capital needs in the market and the investor interest to get more exposure. Can we talk about the opportunity? Where is it for that infrastructure fund? The key is it's across all types of infrastructure. The narrative today is it's being driven entirely by AI infrastructure and digital infrastructure. And while that is a tremendous growth opportunity, we're seeing it across energy, we've seen it across traditional infrastructure, midstream, utilities, transportation. It's very broad-based and it's very globally diversified. You know, it's been a volatile week, understandably, with some of the election results. The important thing for us is the need for energy and the need for infrastructure is not political. Every country needs it, every company needs it every population needs it so we see the growth continuing from here. And I get that you're diversified just because the need is diversified but I wonder if there's also an element to it of AI concentration risk is a real thing and you're deliberately making sure that you are not overly concentrated to the space. The movements and the volatility this week and the election results, I think everyone needs to acknowledge that represents a change in sentiment. But we've been doing this a very long time across multiple cycles, multiple administrations. And what's important to recognize in the market today is there is no shortage of demand and there is not shortage of capital. What is dictating this fantastic pace of growth we've seen is who can actually pull these projects out of the ground, who has the expertise, the experience, the capabilities to pull these very significant infrastructure, AI infrastructure projects out of the ground. That's the bottleneck on our business. That's the bottleneck on the whole industry. We think with the results this week, those capabilities become even more important going forward. We don't really see things slowing down because supply was always the bottleneck, not demand. So you mean even, for example, okay, 41 measures on the ballot in the United States on data centers, all but one ended up passing that were negative AI data centers. Does that slow things down at all on the margins? It slows things down on the margin. But the reality is we weren't on the margin before. Demand was exceptionally high. On a relative basis, supply was very, very modest. And as a result, even if the demand growth slows, even if it plateaus, even if it declines, that supply-demand imbalance is going to continue. And therefore, being a producer of capacity, a producer of these critical assets going forward, the business model feels very resilient, very robust going forward. I'm really interested by this idea that the people who went in this environment of uncertainty, of needing to get through these various bottlenecks, are the experienced ones. And I wonder then what you make of the opportunity set for the up-and-coming, the neoclouds, the chip financing, if that is just too risky then? We are globally, and some component of it, driven by AI and AI infrastructure, in the greatest infrastructure-built environment in history. The capital needs are exceptional. The opportunities are exceptional, that represents an exciting new growth opportunity for some market participants. Infrastructure is what we do at Brookfield. We've been doing it for 40 years. It is the most foundational cornerstone of our business. Anytime there is a period of exceptional growth, you are going to get some new entrants that maybe don't have the experience and make a few mistakes. That will dominate headlines. It doesn't disrupt the incredibly robust directional trend And for the larger players who are doing this on time, on budget, the same we have in every other infrastructure class for the last four decades. Is there some element then, and I realize you are not, you know, a public markets guy, but is there some elements though that then a reset is a healthy thing to get back to kind of reality and away from some pockets of froth? If I could come at it this way, a lot of the public securities valuations across equities or debt was trying to price that marginal component of demand. And that has been volatile and headline-driven for the last several months. We don't dispute that at all. But in terms of who's supplying the backbone infrastructure to this, the bottleneck there has been supply. And therefore, both those things can be true. The markets can be volatile because they are judging the marginal component of demand, our business model and our focus on investment in the space remains unchanged because the long-term supply-demand fundamentals, they don't feel any different today than they did on Monday. How do you deal with specific instances? Like, I'm thinking of just one example. So, Project Jupiter, you're involved because you back Bloom Energy, and Bloom Energy trying to supply the power, but it needs approvals for an oil pipeline. That permitting is getting delayed. What do you do in a situation like that? What is the status there? So like any infrastructure project around the world, whether it's a solar farm, whether it's midstream asset, whether its power for a data center, we take the same de-risk development approach. We support the build out of long term, long duration critical assets backed by high quality counterparts under long term revenue constructs. No different with Bloom. We rely on Bloom as a supplier and operator. We enter into long-term contracts with the off-takes of those data centers. But one very important thing, and this is where we think there will be separation in the market, we take a very de-risked approach to development. We don't put dollars in the ground until we have those permits, we have the equipment, we have this supply chain lined up. And the other thing is, again, we've been doing this for many years. We know the social license to operate is critical, And we will focus our deployments of capital in places where there's community support and the investment and the growth is welcomed. So away from the data centers of it all, because I realize your business is bigger than just that. This exit environment I'm really interested by because you have had some of your peers come out. Blackstone, for example, comes out and says, yes, it was a bit of a rougher quarter because of the volatility, because of energy prices. Realizations were a little bit harder to come by. Are you seeing the same thing in the broader volatile macro dynamic? It's interesting. At Brookfield Asset Management, it is our first quarter of meaningful realized carry since we spun out in 2022. So, candidly, we're not seeing that across our broader business. Brookfield Assets Management CEO Connor Teske speaking with me.