Raphael Stevens

Rockefeller Capital Management, the wealth manager born from the Rockefeller heirs’ family office, is valued at $6.6 billion after new investment, CNBC has learned.
The recapitalization was led by Mousse Partners, the Chanel owners’ private investment firm; family office Progeny 3 and hedge fund Abrams Capital.
Rockefeller CEO Greg Fleming told CNBC why investment firms of the ultra-rich are backing the wealth advisory, which manages $187 billion in assets.

Greg Fleming, Rockefeller Capital Management president and CEO, speaks during CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’ on July 10, 2025.

Rockefeller Capital Management, the wealth manager born from John D. Rockefeller’s family office, has raised new funds from investment firms of other ultra-rich families, CNBC has learned.
On Tuesday, Rockefeller plans to announce the financing and its new valuation of $6.6 billion, up from $3 billion in 2023. The terms of the recapitalization, which traditionally use equity or debt to fund growth, strengthen the balance sheet, or provide liquidity to investors, were not disclosed.

The recapitalization was led by Mousse Partners, the family office of Chanel’s owners; Progeny 3, a Kirkland, Washington-based firm built on a shipping fortune; and Abrams Capital, the hedge fund manager founded by David Abrams, a protege of The Baupost Group’s Seth Klarman.
The Rockefeller family still owns a minority stake in the firm, having rolled over some of their equity from their former family office into Rockefeller when it was formed in 2018 with only $18 billion in assets. The firm now manages $187 billion in assets, mostly through its global family office division. Rockefeller also has asset management and investment bank divisions.
With the transaction, which is expected to close by the end of 2025, hedge fund and founding backer Viking Global Investors will no longer be the firm’s majority shareholder, but will still own the largest stake.
Rockefeller CEO Greg Fleming told CNBC in an interview the new investors are emblematic of the entrepreneurial, high-net-worth clients that the firm targets. Rockefeller typically caters to clients with $25 million to $100 million in assets. With the fresh funding, the firm plans to reach more American business owners by hiring more advisors in existing markets including Boston and Houston and new ones like Miami and Minneapolis, he said.
“Our new families that are investing here have created wealth through building businesses,” Fleming said. “In America, 4 [million] to 5 million new businesses are started and developed every year.”

Rockefeller is also looking to tap into international wealth by partnering with local wealth advisory firms, most likely in Singapore and the Middle East, he said.
“The Rockefeller brand is a global brand, an iconic brand,” he said, pointing to the Standard Oil family’s philanthropic efforts abroad, such as founding a hospital in Beijing over a century ago. “That’s another growth lever. The slingshot that we’ve got coming out of this transaction will allow us to go after it.”

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Fleming said negotiations for the financing began in earnest this past summer. He said the patient capital of family offices, which can afford to invest for decades or even generations, were a good fit for the firm’s long-term vision. The Desmarais family, one of Canada’s richest, invested $622 million in Rockefeller in 2023 through its financial services conglomerate, Power Corporation of Canada.
“They know if you’re going to build something that’s excellent that it takes time, and they look for investments that flourish over the long run,” Fleming said of family-office investors.
Mousse Partners, the family office of Chanel owners Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, is better known for its consumer bets such as clean beauty label Beautycounter, recently rebranded as Counter, and the luxury fashion brand The Row. That said, Mousse Partners has invested in financial services before, having backed the private takeover of Rothschild & Co. alongside the bank’s namesake family and the families behind Peugeot and Dassault.
Fleming said family offices see wealth management as a growth business with stable fee-based revenue. He added that the firm is also poised for growth during the great wealth transfer, with $124 trillion expected to be passed down by 2048 by Cerulli Associates’ estimate.
“If you’re focused on the client first, and you do a really good job, you can do more and more for the existing clients and bring in more and more new clients,” he said.
The lofty expectations of ultra-rich clients also plays into the firm’s favor, as they increasingly expect a broad range of services from direct investing advisory to philanthropic education and a seamless tech interface, he said.
“It’s a business where, particularly in 2025, there’s a lot of investment needed to be able to create the capabilities to serve these high-net-worth and ultra-net-worth families. They are sophisticated,” he said. “It’s quite hard to do it.” More

General Motors’ third quarter results next week will include a $1.6 billion impact from its all-electric vehicle plans not playing out as anticipated. 
GM said its reassessment of its EV capacity and manufacturing footprint is “ongoing,” signaling additional charges could be announced later.
GM’s EV charges comes more than a year after crosstown rival Ford Motor announced a $1.9 billion impact from changing its EV plans. 

A Chevrolet Silverado EV and a Chevrolet Brightdrop, which is assembled in Canada, are seen on display at the Canadian International AutoShow in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, February 13, 2025. 
Carlos Osorio | Reuters

DETROIT — General Motors’ third-quarter results next week will include a $1.6 billion impact from its all-electric vehicle plans not playing out as anticipated. 
The Detroit automaker Tuesday morning in a public filing said $1.2 billion of the impact will be non-cash, special charges as a result of adjustments to its EV capacity. The other $400 million in cash is primarily related to contract cancellation fees and commercial settlements associated with EV-related investments, according to the filing. 

The automaker said its reassessment of its EV capacity and manufacturing footprint is “ongoing,” signaling additional charges could be announced for future quarters.
The charges will be reported as special items when GM reports its third quarter results on Oct. 21. That means they will impact the automaker’s net results but not its adjusted earnings, or EBIT-adjusted, which are closely watched by Wall Street.
GM was among the earliest to invest billions of dollars in an EV market that didn’t culminate. At one point, the company was planning to invest $30 billion by this year in EVs, including dozens of new models and capacity for battery production.
The charges come amid changing regulations regarding EVs — particularly the end of $7,500 in federal tax credits — under the Trump administration as compared to President Joe Biden, who championed the vehicles. 

“Following recent U.S. Government policy changes, including the termination of certain consumer tax incentives for EV purchases and the reduction in the stringency of emissions regulations, we expect the adoption rate of EVs to slow,” GM said in the filing.

John Murphy, a longtime analyst with Bank of America, warned earlier this year of such write-downs for automakers that invested heavily in EVs.
“There’s a lot of tough decisions that are going to need to be made,” Murphy, who’s now with Haig Partners, said in June during an event for Bank of America’s “Car Wars” report. “Based on the study, I think we’re going to see multibillion-dollar write-downs that are flooding the headlines for the next few years.”
GM’s EV pullback charges come more than a year after crosstown rival Ford Motor announced a $1.9 billion impact from its EV plans. 
Ford’s included about $400 million for the write-down of manufacturing assets, as well as additional expenses and cash expenditures of up to $1.5 billion that included canceling a large, electric three-row SUV that was already far in development and delaying production of its next-generation electric full-size pickup truck.
GM, which offers the most EV models in the U.S., has made significant gains this year in EV sales, but the size of the market is niche compared with expectations at the beginning of this decade.
Motor Intelligence reported that the Detroit automaker went from an 8.7% market share in all-electric vehicles to begin this year to 13.8% through the third quarter – topping Hyundai Motor, including Kia, at 8.6% through September. It still trails U.S. EV leader Tesla, which was estimated to have a 43.1% market share through September. More

Goldman Sachs has agreed to acquire Industry Ventures, a venture capital firm with $7 billion in assets under supervision, according to a release from the investment bank.
Goldman is paying $665 million in cash and equity, and up to $300 million more based on the firm’s future performance through 2030, the bank said.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026.

David Solomon, chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., during an interview for an episode of “The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations” in New York, US, on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024.
Jeenah Moon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Goldman Sachs has agreed to acquire Industry Ventures, a venture capital firm with $7 billion in assets under supervision, according to a release from the investment bank.
Goldman is paying $665 million in cash and equity, and up to $300 million more based on the firm’s future performance through 2030, the bank said. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026.

Goldman Sachs is making the acquisition to bolster its $540 billion alternatives investment platform, part of the self-identified “growth engine” of the investment bank. By identifying and making bets on startups, the venture capital firm can help Goldman create a pipeline of investments for its wealthy clients, as well as provide solutions to tech entrepreneurs.
San Francisco-based Industry Ventures has helped pioneer aspects of the American VC market since its founding 25 years ago, according to Goldman CEO David Solomon.
“Industry Ventures’ trusted relationships and venture capital expertise complement our existing investing franchises and expand opportunities for clients to access the fastest growing companies and sectors in the world,” Solomon said in the release.
“By combining the global resources of Goldman Sachs with the venture capital expertise of Industry Ventures, we are uniquely positioned to serve the increasingly complex needs of entrepreneurs, private technology companies, limited partners, and venture fund managers,” said Hans Swildens, founder and CEO of Industry Ventures.
Industry Ventures has made more than 1,000 investments and said its annual performance was an internal rate of return of 18%.
The bank said it expects that all 45 employees of the venture firm will join Goldman. More

Look no further than the automotive industry for the latest indication of a potential “K-Shaped” economy for U.S. consumers.
Cox Automotive on Monday reported the average price paid for a new vehicle last month topped $50,000 for the first time ever.
The record comes as defaults and repossessions have increased as of late, particularly for consumers with subprime credit

A salesperson (left) shows vehicles to a shopper at a Toyota dealership.
Getty Images

DETROIT — Look no further than the automotive industry for the latest indication that U.S. consumers could be facing a “K-shaped” economy, where the wealthy keep seeing gains while those who have lower incomes struggle.
The average price paid for a new vehicle last month topped $50,000 for the first time ever, Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book reported Monday. Meanwhile, auto loan delinquency rates remain near all-time highs for those with low credit ratings.

Consumers who can afford a new vehicle are on a buying spree, while those on tighter budgets are staying out of the market, according to Cox Automotive executive analyst Erin Keating.
“While there are many affordable options out there, many price-conscious buyers are choosing to stay on the sidelines or cruising in the used-vehicle market,” she said in a statement. “Today’s auto market is being driven by wealthier households who have access to capital, good loan rates and are propping up the higher end of the market.”
Economists have warned the U.S. economy is increasingly “K-shaped” following the coronavirus pandemic, with consumers experiencing different realities depending on their income level.
Wealthier Americans have been assisted by rising house values, lucrative stock market returns and favorable credit, while lower- and middle-income buyers have faced tighter budgets and been hit hard by rising inflation.

“We have already, for a while now, talked about the ‘K-shaped’ outlook for the consumer. Some consumers are doing well. Some are doing less well,” Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Slok said Monday on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “Now we also having a K-shape for the broader economy, where you have a booming industrial renaissance, but the consumer is facing more headwinds.”

Slok was addressing the overall U.S. market for consumers amid a potential trade war with China, but also said affordability concerns and the increasing rate of auto loan delinquencies by subprime buyers are a problem.
New car buyers have faced rising sticker prices, smaller discounts and higher loan rates since the coronavirus pandemic — especially for those with the worst credit scores.
The average new auto loan rate was about 9% as of the most recent data from August, according to Cox Automotive’s Dealertrack. That included rates of around 18% to 20% for subprime or “deep-subprime” consumers, who have lower credit scores and are more likely to default on a loan.
Last month’s pricing record of $50,080 comes as auto loan delinquencies, defaults and repossessions have increased in recent months and years, particularly for consumers with subprime credit — or those with a FICO score below 620.

Fitch Ratings reports 6.43% of subprime auto loans in August were at least 60 days past due, in line with a record high of 6.45% that was hit in January. Delinquency rates for borrowers with higher scores have remained relatively stable.
The Consumer Federation of America, a nonprofit advocacy group, last month described U.S. auto financing at a “breaking point, as Americans owe over $1.66 trillion in auto debt.”
The report was released as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau received record high numbers of complaints about auto loans. It followed an analysis by the New York Fed last year that found car buyers with above-average credit scores (620-679) were twice as likely to fall behind as they were before the pandemic.
Cars.com’s Edmunds earlier this month reported the share of buyers committing to monthly payments of $1,000 or more accounted for 19.1% of all financed new-car transactions in the third quarter, near the record set the previous quarter at 19.3%.
Rising delinquency rates among other concerns, recently led to subprime auto lender Tricolor unexpectedly collapsing.
Cox’s Keating noted that while tariffs have increased costs and reduced affordability, the record prices last month were driven by the strong sales of all-electric vehicles. Consumers rushed to buy EVs ahead of federal tax incentives of up to $7,500 ending at the end of September.
EVs are typically more expensive than their traditional counterparts, with Cox Automotive reporting the average transaction price for a new EV last month was more than $58,000.
“We’ve been expecting to break through the $50,000 barrier,” Keating said. “That’s today’s market, and it is ripe for disruption.” More