The rush for the exits in private credit is prompting fresh scrutiny of the sector’s less-liquid structures and its rapid expansion into the retail wealth space.

Blackstone has become the latest fund manager to be hit by a surge in requests from investors to withdraw from its flagship private credit strategy.

The asset manager said this week it will meet 100% of redemption requests in its gigantic $82 billion Blackstone Private Credit Fund, or BCRED, after investors sought to pull a record 7.9% of assets from the fund, or about $3.8 billion.

That came after Blue Owl Capital said last month it was ending regular quarterly liquidity payments in its Blue Owl Capital Corporation II fund, a semi-liquid private credit strategy aimed at U.S. retail investors. The private credit specialist will instead switch to periodic payouts funded by asset sales, earnings and other strategic deals.

This spike in redemption requests is now putting the private market industry’s courting of retail investors under closer scrutiny, and bringing the mismatch between non-publicly-traded, higher-yielding illiquid assets and retail-style access into sharper focus.

Blackstone — the world’s biggest alternative investment manager, with $1.27 trillion in assets under management — said it was upping a previously-announced tender offer to 7% of total shares, with the firm and employees offsetting the remaining 0.9%, in order to meet the redemption requests in full.

Blackstone Chief Operating Officer and President Jon Gray acknowledged that the risk of private credit firms failing to meet withdrawals, and potentially gating investors’ money, is “not beneficial in the near term” for the sector.

But speaking with CNBC’s “Squawk On The Street” Tuesday, Gray said individual investors and financial advisors “in most cases do” understand the product.

“What people sometimes fail to recognize is, they’re designed as semi-liquid products,” Gray said. “The idea that there are caps is really a feature, not a bug of these products. What you’re doing is trading away a bit of liquidity for higher returns. That’s the same trade-off institutional investors have made for a long period of time.”

Shares of publicly traded alternative asset managers — including Blackstone and Blue Owl, as well as KKR, Ares Management and Carlyle Group, among others — have dipped as concerns over multiple pressure points in the sector have spread.

Man Group, the London-listed global alternatives manager which has expanded its private credit activity in recent years, said private credit loans are originated with the “express purpose” of being held to maturity.

“To be free, one must be feared. To be feared, one must be powerful,” French President Emmanuel Macron said during a landmark speech this week on nuclear deterrence.

France is one of only two nuclear powers in Europe and, unlike the U.K., operates a nuclear weapons system entirely independent of the U.S.

As the U.S. and Israel continued to strike Iran, and European leaders appeared divided and sidelined as they scrambled to react, Macron delivered a speech on Monday that was “the most significant update to French nuclear deterrence policy in 30 years,” Bruno Tertrais, deputy director of the Foundation for Strategic Research, said in a thread on X.

Speaking from a naval base in Brittany in front of a submarine, “Le Téméraire,” Macron’s 45-minute speech laid out what he called a new “forward deterrence” doctrine for France.

Macron said France would increase its number of nuclear warheads and promised more cooperation with European allies that have expressed interest.

He said several European countries — Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden and Denmark — could take part in exercises of France’s air-launched nuclear capacity and France’s nuclear bombers could be stationed at their air bases. Macron also said France would stop disclosing the figures for its nuclear arsenal.

“The world is becoming more difficult, and recent events have demonstrated this once again,” he said in the speech.

“We must strengthen our nuclear deterrent in the face of the combination of threats, and we must consider our deterrence strategy within the depths of the European continent, with full respect for our sovereignty, through the progressive implementation of what I would call forward deterrence.”

Yannick Pincé, associate professor of history at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, told CNBC that the speech had to be seen in the context of next year’s presidential election, which a far-right National Rally candidate could win.

“He needed to give a politically acceptable speech, to announce measures that would be difficult to reverse next year,” Pincé said.

“At the same time, he needed to be credible enough with our allies. He was walking a tightrope, and from my point of view, he succeeded rather well.”

An independent nuclear deterrent has been the cornerstone of France’s defense strategy for more than 60 years.

But Macron said that the doctrine has to evolve with the threats. In 2020, Macron hinted at a shift when he said that France’s “vital interests” – a definition of which remains deliberately vague – now had “a European dimension.”

On Monday, Macron said that the years since 2020 “weigh like decades, and the last few months like years.”

“Our competitors have evolved, as have our partners,” he said, adding “the last few hours” of escalating conflict in the Middle East showed how the world has become “harsher.”

Macron mentioned the war in Ukraine and the threat from Russia, but also China and changing defense priorities of the United States.

In line with the historic nuclear doctrine, Macron said that the decision to use force “belongs solely to the President of the Republic,” rejecting explicit “guarantees” to partner countries.

Ankit Panda, Stanton senior fellow in the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, called the speech “remarkable.”

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is back at the negotiating table with the U.S. Department of Defense after the breakdown of talks on Friday over the use of the company’s AI tools by the military, according to The Financial Times. 

Amodei is in talks with Emil Michael, under-secretary of defense for research and engineering, in a last-ditch effort to reach an agreement on the terms governing the Pentagon’s access to Anthropic’s Claude models, the Times reported, citing anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter.

Discussions fell apart Friday, with President Donald Trump directing federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s tools, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth saying he would designate the company a supply-chain risk to national security.

Last week, Michael had attacked Amodei, calling him a “liar” with a “God complex,” in an X post.

Agreeing to a new contract would enable the U.S. military to continue using Anthropic’s technology, which has reportedly been utilized in Washington’s war with Iran. 

Claude became the first major model deployed in the government’s classified networks through a $200 million contract awarded by the DoD to Anthropic, but the company later sought guarantees that its tools would not be used in domestic surveillance or autonomous weapons. The Pentagon had demanded that the military be allowed to employ the technology for any lawful use.

In a Friday memo seen by FT, Amodei reportedly told staff that near the end of negotiations with the Defense Department, it had offered to accept Anthropic’s terms if they deleted a “specific phrase about ‘analysis of bulk acquired data'” — a line he said, “exactly matched this scenario we were most worried about.” 

Amodei also wrote in his note that messaging from the Pentagon and OpenAI, which struck a new deal with the Defense Department on Friday, was “just straight up lies about these issues or tries to confuse them.” 

The timing of OpenAI’s deal with the Pentagon, announced within hours of the White House decrying Anthropic, had caused a public backlash, with Claude seeing a surge of app downloads while ChatGPT reportedly saw app uninstallations surge.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman later said that his company “shouldn’t have rushed” its deal and outlined revisions to its own safeguards with how the Defense Department can use its technology. 

In a post on X, Altman further addressed the controversy, saying: “In my conversations over the weekend, I reiterated that Anthropic should not be designated as a [supply chain risk], and that we hope the [Department of Defense] offers them the same terms we’ve agreed to.”

Anthropic was founded in 2021 by a group of former OpenAI staff and researchers, who left the firm after disagreements over its direction, with the company marketing itself as a “safety-first” alternative.

Government officials have for months criticized Anthropic for allegedly being overly concerned with AI safety.

A tech industry group, whose members include Nvidia, Google and Anthropic, had sent a letter to Hegseth on Wednesday expressing concern over his designating a U.S. company as a supply-chain risk.

The Defense Department and Anthropic did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment on their reported negotiations.

Amazon‘s data center in Bahrain was targeted by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for the company’s support of the U.S. military, Iranian state media said Wednesday.

The company’s cloud computing unit said Monday that one of its facilities in Bahrain was damaged due to a nearby drone strike on Sunday. Two data centers in the United Arab Emirates were also damaged after they were “directly struck” by drones.

All of the facilities remain offline, according to the Amazon Web Services health dashboard.

The attack in Bahrain was launched “to identify the role of these centers in supporting the enemy’s military and intelligence activities,” Iran’s Fars News Agency said on Telegram.

The incidents came after joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran over the weekend. Iran has retaliated against Israeli and U.S. bases across the Gulf.

Amazon declined to comment.

In addition to structural damage, the data centers also experienced power disruptions and some water damage after firefighters worked to put out sparks and fire. Some popular AWS applications experienced “elevated error rates and degraded availability” due to the incident.

AWS advised cloud customers to back up their data, consider migrating their workloads to other regions and direct traffic away from Bahrain and the UAE.

AWS announced its Bahrain region in 2019, and it hosts significant workloads for governments there. The company also operates a corporate office in Bahrain that is primarily for AWS employees.

Earlier this week, Amazon instructed all of its corporate employees in the Middle East to work remotely and “follow local government guidelines” amid escalating instability in the region.

Broadcom reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue and issued a strong forecast for the current period as the chipmaker continues to benefit from the artificial intelligence boom.

Here’s how the company performed in comparison with LSEG consensus:

• Earnings per share: $2.05 adjusted vs. $2.03 estimated
• Revenue: $19.31 billion vs. $19.18 billion estimated

Revenue jumped 29% year over year during the fiscal first quarter, which ended on Feb. 1, according to a statement.

Net income increased to $7.35 billion, or $1.50 per share, from $5.50 billion, or $1.14 per share, in the same quarter a year earlier. Adjusted earnings exclude stock-based compensation and tax adjustments.

For the second quarter, Broadcom said it anticipates a 68% adjusted profit margin, higher than StreetAccount’s 66% consensus. The company said it’s looking for $22 billion in revenue, beating the $20.56 billion average estimate, according to LSEG.

Broadcom helps other companies translate their chip designs into silicon, providing intellectual property and backend technologies before they’re sent off to chip fabrication plants from companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It’s a role that’s gained importance as Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft design customized chips.

AI revenue soared 106% from a year earlier to $8.4 billion, “driven by robust demand for custom AI accelerators and AI networking,” CEO Hock Tan said in the statement.

Tan had called for a doubling of AI revenue in December. He said the company expects AI semiconductor revenue of $10.7 billion this period.

Broadcom reported $12.52 billion in revenue from semiconductor solutions, higher than the $12.25 billion that analysts polled by StreetAccount expected. During the quarter, Broadcom announced new Wi-Fi 8 chips.

For infrastructure software, Broadcom said it generated $6.80 billion in revenue, lower than StreetAccount’s $7.02 billion consensus.

Broadcom said its board authorized up to $10 billion in new share buybacks through 2026.

In December Tan said Anthropic had placed a $10 billion custom chip order. Last week U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon would dub Anthropic a “supply chain risk to national security” and President Donald Trump directed government agencies to stop using Anthropic after the AI startup refused to permit uses of its technology for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons.

As of Wednesday’s close, Broadcom shares were down 8% so far in 2026, while the S&P 500 index was flat.

Executives will discuss the results on a conference call starting at 5 p.m. ET.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

Shares of Adidas fell as much as 8% on Wednesday after providing a disappointing 2026 outlook, as it grapples with unfavorable currency swings and a hit from U.S. tariffs.

The German sportswear company sees 2026 revenue growth in the high single digits from 2025’s total of 24.8 billion euros ($28.86 billion).

Operating profit is expected to increase to around 2.3 billion euros, despite a 400 million euro negative impact from U.S. tariffs and unfavorable currency developments.

The profitability outlook “will disappoint” investors, as it was 15% below overall expectations, said RBC Capital Markets analysts. “The question will be how conservative is the EBIT guidance given adidas’ preferred approach to be prudent at the start of the year,” they added.

An implied 9% margin from operating profit of 2.3 billion euros is well shy of expectations, Jefferies analyst James Grzinic said.

Fourth-quarter sales and profit both slightly missed the mark at 6.1 billion euros and 164 million euros in constant currencies, respectively, according to FactSet estimates. 

“Driving double-digit growth in the fourth quarter despite all the external turbulence, and more than doubling our operating profit in the quarter made the year end very well,” said Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden.

Adidas also presented mid-term targets on Wednesday, seeing currency-neutral sales growing at a high single-digit rate in 2026-2028, with operating profit expanding by a mid-teens annual growth rate over that period.

Shares of Adidas were last seen 6.7% lower, notching a fresh 52-week low.

Coming into Wednesday trading, Adidas shares had fallen about 43% over the past 12 months as investors remain skeptical about Adidas’ future.

The growth prospects of the global sportswear industry, characterized by excess supply and changing consumer preferences in China, represent another pressure point for investors. 

Country peer Puma and bigger U.S. competitor Nike have faced similar woes and are also in the midst of a turnaround. In October, Nike’s CEO told CNBC it would “take a while” for the company to return to profitable growth.

Adidas on Wednesday also extended CEO Gulden’s contract until 2030, in an apparent vote of confidence in his strategy.

Gulden took the reins in 2023 to steady the company after its split with rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, over antisemitic comments and triggering a crisis for Adidas, which had been relying on sales of the Yeezy sneaker line that Ye fronted.

Since the U.S. attack on Iran, congressional Democrats and opponents of President Donald Trump called the operation unconstitutional and vowed to rein-in the president. But another impeachment — which the president says he fears if Democrats retake the U.S. House — hasn’t seriously entered the conversation.

That may change post-midterms if the party wins the House and Republicans lose their grip on both chambers of Congress plus the White House. Trump knows he would be in Democratic crosshairs and has expressed fear of a third impeachment to congressional Republicans, telling them to they need to win in November.

“If you swing at him, you want to make sure that you don’t miss,” Jared Leopold, a Democratic strategist who has worked on the Hill and for the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, said in an interview.

House Democrats convened last week to hash out strategy for this year, meeting before the new Iran war — which Trump began without seeking congressional approval — gave another potential grounds to seek impeachment.

Impeachment tends to be unpopular with voters, and there is concern in some Democratic corners that past attempts to rein-in Trump have not resonated. He was impeached by the U.S. House in 2019 over allegations that he withheld military aid to Ukraine to exert political pressure and in 2021 over his actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2020 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Both times the Senate voted to acquit.

But if Democrats win back the House, there will likely be serious pressure to impeach Trump a third time. No other president has been impeached twice.

“We’re not afraid of impeachment or any other constitutional tool in our arsenal, but we have learned that impeachment is no panacea,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in an interview before the operation in Iran. 

“It’s not a fetish with us, but it’s also not a taboo with us,” Raskin said. “If we think that this will be the most effective way to address some of the crises of the republic that have been unleashed by President Trump or particular members of his cabinet, then it will have to be considered.”

Given that any talk of impeachment is purely symbolic with Republicans in control of both the House and the Senate, Leopold said he did not expect to see any groundswell of impeachment talk in the short term.

“You’ve seen some come out at various points, using the ‘I word’ usually as sort of an attention seeking device,” Leopold said. “People mostly want to see Democrats fight back in a way that has real world impact. … Sometimes if you’re a football team, you want to hand the ball off and get first downs instead of trying to go for a Hail Mary every play.”

While the Iran attack didn’t bring a deluge of new impeachment calls, Democrats since Trump retook office last year have threatened to impeach Trump over his 2025 strikes on Iran, his ousting of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro without congressional approval and for a grab bag of other alleged offenses. 

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who as recently as the Maduro ouster in January had said she was “reconsidering” her view that pursuing impeachment now was unrealistic, put the kibosh on any similar effort now.

“I don’t want to go there. I think that we’re focused on what is happening in Iran,” Waters said Tuesday as she left a Trump administration briefing on the Iran operation. “I think when we take control of the House we will consider that.”

“The morally bankrupt Trump administration has partnered with another morally bankrupt authoritarian to declare an unprovoked war on Iran, already killing scores of civilians,” candidate Kat Abughazaleh posted on BlueSky. “We need an immediate vote from Congress on a War Powers Resolution. Then articles of impeachment.”

Fellow candidates Evanston, Ill. Mayor Daniel K. Biss and state Sen. Laura Fine similarly called for Trump’s impeachment.

Before the Iran attack, Democratic leaders were weighing how to effectively keep Trump in check without drowning out other issues. Party leaders have discussed prioritizing an affordability message, the same topic Republicans want Trump to focus on for the election year.

When Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, brought a resolution to impeach Trump in December, just 140 Democrats voted against a motion to table the measure. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, whose leadership team opted not to drum up votes for the resolution, was one of 47 Democrats to vote “present,” not supporting or opposing the measure.

“What we tell our members and what we tell candidates who are running is we have to do all of the things,” Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said at the Democratic policy retreat last week. “We have to do oversight and accountability and we have to talk about the affordability agenda and how we’re going to make life better for people if we’re given the opportunity to lead and if we’re given the opportunity to govern.”

Rep. Deborah Ross, D-N.C., a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said at the retreat that some Democratic attempt to impeach is all but certain. The trouble, she said, would be determining on what grounds to impeach. Jeffries is “not going to just have a free for all,” she said.

“I think the difficulty would be narrowing down the high crimes and misdemeanors. Because I think there are high crimes and felonies,” Ross said. 

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday doubled down on his criticism of the U.S strikes against Iran, describing the escalating Middle East conflict as a “disaster.”

His comments come after U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to cut off trade with Madrid after Spain’s government prevented two jointly operated bases in its territory from being used in the strikes.

“Spain has been terrible,” Trump said on Tuesday, during a White House news conference alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain,” he added.

In a televised address on Wednesday morning, Sanchez said: “Very often great wars start with a chain of events spiralling out of control due to miscalculations, technical failures, and unforeseen circumstances. Therefore, we must learn from history and cannot play Russian roulette with the fate of millions,” according to a CNBC translation.

Sanchez warned of “repeating the mistakes of the past,” drawing a comparison with the invasion of Iraq in the early 2000s, and summarized the government’s position as: “No to war.”

Spain’s socialist prime minister has emerged as one of the leading critics of the U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran among leaders of EU nations.

Trump’s latest comments follow his condemnation of Madrid’s refusal to meet the NATO defense spending target of 5% of GDP.

Spain’s Ibex 35 index traded 1.4% higher at around 10:17 a.m. London time (5:17 a.m. ET), reversing earlier losses amid U.S. trade jitters. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index, meanwhile, advanced around 1.2%.

Trump’s threat to punish Spain on trade would be challenging, given that the 27 EU nations negotiate trade agreements collectively.

“It’s naive to believe that democracy or respect among nations can spring from ruins, or to think that blind and servile obedience is a form of leadership. On the contrary, I believe this position is leadership,” Sanchez said.

“We will not be complicit in something that is bad for the world and contrary to our values ​​and interests simply out of fear of reprisals from someone,” he added.

— CNBC’s Charlotte Reed contributed to this report.

Nvidia, Amazon and Alphabet are among the big tech firms scrambling to ensure the safety of their employees who are traveling through or based in the Middle East after joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran over the weekend.

The massive attack on Iran killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, among others, and Iran retaliated with strikes on Israeli and U.S. bases across the Gulf. The conflict has disrupted civilian life, internet access in Iran, flight routes and energy shipments across the region.

Chip tech leader Nvidia temporarily closed its Dubai offices, with employees there working remotely, according to an email reviewed by CNBC that was sent by CEO Jensen Huang to all employees early Tuesday.

Huang said in his memo that Nvidia’s crisis management team has been “working around the clock and actively supporting affected employees and their families” in the Middle East, including around 6,000 Nvidia employees based in Israel.

In 2019, Nvidia acquired Mellanox, an Israeli company that makes ethernet switches and other networking hardware, for around $7.13 billion, the largest deal in Nvidia’s history at that time. And today, outside of the U.S., Israel represents Nvidia’s largest research and development base.

As of Tuesday morning, all Nvidia employees impacted by the conflict and their immediate families were safe, Huang said.

“Nvidia has deep roots in the region,” Huang wrote. “Thousands of our colleagues live there, and many more across the globe have family and friends affected by these events. Like you, I am watching with great concern for the safety of our Nvidia families.”

The State Department said Monday that Americans should “depart now” from countries across the Middle East using available commercial transportation, citing “serious safety risks.” By Tuesday afternoon, the agency said it was working to secure military aircraft and charter flights to evacuate Americans from the region amid escalating instability.

The disruptions to air travel meant dozens of Google employees have been stranded in Dubai after a sales conference, according to sources, who asked not to be named in order to discuss sensitive matters.

The company’s cloud unit held its “Accelerate” sales kickoff in Dubai last week.

A memo was sent to some cloud employees on Sunday morning that noted it still has team members on the ground, adding that recent attacks are “concerning,” according to employees, who asked not to be named in order to speak about internal matters.

Though most employees got out of the region, dozens remain stuck there, the sources said.

Following the attack on Iran, airlines had mass cancellations. More than 11,000 Middle East flights have been cancelled since the U.S.-Israeli strikes over the weekend, according to aviation-data firm Cirium.

Google said the majority of impacted employees are not U.S.-based but in-region employees. It added that it has security and safety measures in place for its employees in the Middle East and has advised staff to follow guidance from local authorities.

“The situation in the Middle East is evolving rapidly and we are monitoring it carefully,” a Google spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “Our focus is on the safety and well-being of our employees in the region.”

Tel Aviv, a central Israeli city that has been hit with strikes, is also a major hub for Google. The search giant is in the process of expanding into a massive new headquarters in the ToHa2 Tower, expected to be one of its largest global sites.

Google did not immediately respond to questions about how Tel Aviv-based operations and employees have been affected by the Iran conflict.

Amazon, which has grown its presence in the Middle East region in recent years, is also altering its operations there as it responds to the widening conflict in the region.

The company is instructing all of its corporate employees in the Middle East to work remotely and “follow local government guidelines.”

“The safety of our employees and partners remains our top priority, and we are working closely with local teams and local authorities to ensure they are supported,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement.

Amazon operates corporate offices in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt, Turkey and Israel. It also operates warehouses and data centers throughout the region, and “quick commerce outlets” in the UAE to fulfill 15-minute deliveries.

Its sprawling data center footprint became a flashpoint in the conflict on Sunday. Two data centers in the UAE were “directly struck” by drones, while a facility in Bahrain was also damaged by a nearby drone strike.

The facilities sustained structural damage, power disruptions and some water damage after firefighters worked to put out sparks and fire. The sites remain offline, and some Amazon Web Services applications, such as its popular virtual server and database services, have continued to experience issues.

AWS encouraged customers to back up their data or consider migrating workloads to other regions.

“Even as we work to restore these facilities, the ongoing conflict in the region means that the broader operating environment in the Middle East remains unpredictable,” AWS said.

Social media company Snap told CNBC that it’s asking employees at its four Middle East offices to work remotely until further notice.

The company said staffers are being advised to follow advice from local authorities regarding shelter-in-place orders and departure recommendations.

— CNBC’s Jonathan Vanian contributed to this report

WATCH: Iran has many more drones than originally expected