Inside Apollo’s US$110 billion infrastructure investment push

One of the quirks of Australian investors is our love of infrastructure. It is rooted in our mining heritage - a comfort with big, nation-building projects - and our thirst for long-term income generation. The Aussie version of Jerry Maguire would shout, “Show me the dividend!” We are also uniquely endowed with natural advantages. From the iron ore of the Pilbara to the copper, gold, and uranium of Olympic Dam, and from the winds that sweep across the coastline to the sun that reliably shines on our vast interior, the country is rich in the raw ingredients required for the next phase of global infrastructure and energy development. Those strengths place Australia squarely in the middle of a once-in-a-generation infrastructure and energy transition that is unfolding not just locally but globally, particularly in the United States. Few investors have a clearer vantage point on that transformation than Olivia Wassenaar, Partner and Head of Sustainability and Infrastructure at Apollo Global Management. Apollo is one of the world’s largest alternative asset managers, with around US$1 trillion in assets under management, and a rapidly growing footprint in long-dated, capital-intensive infrastructure assets. Over the past five years alone, the firm has invested roughly US$110 billion in infrastructure and around US$80 billion in energy transition and clean investments. As Wassenaar explains, the investment opportunity is being driven by a fundamental reset of the systems that underpin modern economies: “We are rethinking and rebuilding systems that came together over centuries, and we're having to do it over a matter of decades. Whether you're thinking about transportation, electricity demand or how we use power for industry... the world's changing and we're having to adapt to it.” In the interview, Wassenaar unpacks the forces behind the new industrial age, the surge in global power demand, how Apollo is financing 20-30-year infrastructure assets, and why Australia remains a compelling destination for long-term capital.