BlackRock

BlackRock exhibits multiple reinforcing moats. Network effects (score 93, weight 35 percent): iShares dominates ETF liquidity and secondary-market depth, which lowers tracking error and spreads and pulls in more users and market makers.

This increases product shelf space and institutional mandates, evidenced by record iShares flows and the platform crossing 5 trillion dollars.

Switching costs (score 90, weight 25 percent): Aladdin and eFront deeply embed risk, trading, and operations into client workflows; with Preqin data integrating into Aladdin, the ecosystem becomes stickier across public and private markets.

Cost advantage (score 88, weight 20 percent): unparalleled scale enables fee leadership and margin resilience; BlackRock can price aggressively in core beta ETFs while monetizing higher-fee adjacencies like private markets and technology services.

Efficient scale (score 85, weight 15 percent): asset management, ETF market-making ecosystems, and outsourced CIO mandates naturally concentrate among a few trusted firms; entering at comparable scale is prohibitive.

Intangibles (score 80, weight 5 percent): brand trust with sovereigns, pensions, and the largest wealth platforms is hard to replicate.

Risks to the moat include ongoing fee compression in passive, the possibility of technology disintermediation, and regulatory shifts; however, 2025 expansion into private credit and infrastructure, combined with technology and data, strengthens durability.

Evidence includes record AUM and flows in Q3 2025 and the closure of GIP, HPS, and Preqin transactions that expand platform breadth.