AI will make the biggest companies bigger and the smallest more powerful. Hotels show who gets squeezed

In 1988, eight people squeezed into a single room in New York to start an investment firm around an unusual premise: data and technology could give investors a clearer view of risk. That firm became BlackRock. Its Aladdin system grew from an internal risk tool into a platform connecting portfolio construction, trading, operations and accounting. BlackRock ended 2025 with $14 trillion under management after attracting $698 billion of net inflows in a single year. The revealing number, though, is eight.