7 Industry Awards in One Year: What Blue Owl Capital’s 2025 Sweep Tells Us About Real Assets

On March 4, 2026, Blue Owl Capital announced something no other real assets manager matched during the 2025 awards cycle: seven separate honors across two of the private markets industry’s most closely watched recognition programs. Three came from Private Equity Real Estate (PERE), and four came from Infrastructure Investor.

For investors who follow private real estate and infrastructure, those two publications — both part of PEI Group — carry significant weight. PERE covers global private real estate markets; Infrastructure Investor tracks firms, funds, and transactions across the infrastructure sector. Neither program uses a popular vote. Both rely on editorial selection, which means the publications’ editors review submissions and decide winners based on their own criteria. You can find Blue Owl’s comprehensive company background on en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Owl_Capital

Seven honors across two major award programs

Blue Owl Capital’s three PERE awards were Global Net Lease Investor of the Year, Global Data Center Investor of the Year, and Global Retail Real Estate Investor of the Year. On the infrastructure side, the firm received Global Digital Infrastructure Investor of the Year, Global Innovator of the Year, North America Digital Infrastructure Investor of the Year, and North America Deal of the Year for the Hyperion campus financing.

Marc Zahr, Co-President and Global Head of Real Assets at Blue Owl, said in a statement: “We are truly honored to be recognized by both PERE and Infrastructure Investor spanning seven total awards, all of which reinforce the strength of our integrated real assets platform, the dedication of our team and the continued trust of our partners.” His leadership reflects Blue Owl‘s commitment to excellence across its teams.

How PERE and Infrastructure Investor choose their winners

PERE’s selection methodology weighs three primary factors: significant capital raised and deployed within the last twelve months, evidence of market impact, and — for certain categories — performance metrics. Editors review each submission and make what the publication describes as a subjective determination about the winner. For the latest details on how these recognitions landed, see prnewswire.com for the official announcement.

Infrastructure Investor structures its criteria differently depending on the category. For Investor of the Year awards, the editorial board prioritizes fund closes, completed and announced deals, and other milestones from the judging period. Deal of the Year categories reward transactions based on size and industry impact. And the Innovator of the Year designation focuses on milestones that have moved the asset class forward in a distinctive way.

Three transactions anchored Blue Owl Capital’s recognition across both programs: the acquisition of IPI Partners, a majority investment in Dallas-based Gigabit Fiber, and the financing of the $27 billion Hyperion data center campus in Louisiana. The Q4 2025 earnings performance, detailed at finance.yahoo.com/quote/OWL/, provides additional context on capital deployment.

The seven awards underscore how the firm has positioned itself as a versatile operator across real assets. As market observers noted in Blue Owl Capital’s latest earnings call highlights, the awards reflect both the scale of capital moved in 2025 and the breadth of the firm’s expertise.

Recent strategic initiatives also contributed to recognition across both programs. The firm’s $3 billion secondaries strategy launch expanded its capabilities in alternative asset management, adding another dimension to the real assets platform that PERE and Infrastructure Investor sought to honor.