About

BlackRock is an American asset management company that owns over $13 trillion of assets^[1] and businesses. Online, the megacorporation has become the target of memes criticizing late-stage capitalism and corporations' acquisition of residential homes. Not to be confused with private equity firm Blackstone.

Origin

BlackRock was founded in 1988 in New York City by a group of co-founders including Jewish businessman Larry Fink, who’s currently the CEO of the company and a co-chair of the World Economic Forum.^[2][3] BlackRock's name was intentionally made to sound similar to fellow megacorporation Blackstone.^[4]

Spread

BlackRock started gaining notoriety online as news of its purchases, especially its acquisition of residential homes, became public. In August 2025, Youtube user Nateloans uploaded a short-form video depicting a black car speeding down a dirt road and green meadows with a caption accusing the company of purchasing homes from people so it could rent to them at expensive prices. The video gained more than 10 million views and over 200,000 likes. In January 2025, Youtube user Onsokomaru uploaded a short video referencing the video game Cyberpunk 2077 and BlackRock. The video implies that BlackRock is similar to Arasaka Corp., one of the unscrupulous megacorporations found in the game. The video accumulated over 1.6 million views and more than 130,000 likes.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References