Welcome back. We continue to congratulate the professionals recognized in this year's Women to Watch report. Sharing their stories has reminded me of some of the outstanding women that I’ve known. My mother, ever the wisest person in the room, left me with many of her affirmations and sayings before she passed away nearly seven years ago. Every morning when she dropped me off at school as a child, she would make me recite them before getting out of the car: Knowledge is power. A good name is better than riches and gold. Don’t ever underestimate a person. If it is to be, it’s up to me.

In today’s news, our own Luis Garcia reports that the newly established energy arm of Ara Partners made its first deals, investing about $875 million across three transactions.

And Jon Leckie reports on an expanding group of investors who believe the next phase of AI innovation is set to bring the technology further into the physical world.

Now onto the news...

The newly established energy arm of Ara Partners made its initial deals, investing about $875 million across three transactions, WSJ Pro's Luis Garcia reports. The Houston firm acquired five gas-fired power plants and ethanol-producing assets from businesses backed by the family office of Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam. Separately, Ara is also acquiring a stake in JET Tankstellen, an operator of about 970 filling stations in Germany and Austria. The firm joined private-equity firms Stonepeak and Energy Equation Partners in that deal.

Large language models dominated the latest wave of artificial-intelligence innovation, bringing the technology into software and internet applications. But an expanding group of investors believes the next phase is set to bring AI further into the physical world, Jon Leckie writes for WSJ Pro. This year through Feb. 25, global venture-capital funding for physical AI reached $26.7 billion, including $16 billion raised by Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle company Waymo, according to data from Crunchbase. The total is more than any annual investment before 2025.

Temasek-backed Australian startup Samsara Eco is looking for more than $70 million in fresh investments to help it focus its enzyme-based recycling technology on critical minerals, Stuart Condie reports for WSJ Pro. Samsara has already developed plastic-eating enzymes and is using artificial intelligence to design new enzymes that can help recycle materials from electronic waste otherwise destined for landfills or incinerators.

Midmarket investor BV Investment Partners is backing clinical data-focused software maker Moxe Health with a majority investment. The Madison, Wis., company's products are used to exchange patient data between insurers and care providers.

Mountaingate Capital is making a growth investment in Harvest Group, a commerce agency for consumer brands whose technology and services cover tasks such as digital commerce, retail media and analytics, social media advertising and account management.

Midmarket firm Chicago Pacific Founders has backed Nexben, a provider of technology that helps organizations manage health care benefits. Mark Smith, an operating partner at Chicago Pacific, has been named chief executive of Nexben.

Tico Capital Partners in Atlanta has acquired auto showroom and service center designer AME Automotive. The Auburn Hills, Mich.-based company buys and installs equipment used by car dealers as well as offering facility design services.

Socratic Partners, the venture affiliate of Raptor Group, a firm backed by investor Jim Pallotta's family office, led a more than $200 million growth investment in network switch designer Eridu. Other participants in the deal included John Doerr, Hudson River Trading and Capricorn Investment Group. The Saratoga, Calif.-based company is designing switches optimized for use with artificial intelligence technology.

Ardian has agreed to buy a majority stake in Italian self-storage company Casaforte in a deal that brings Ardian’s total investment since 2023 in the self-storage sector to €300 million, or around $349.6 million.

Accel led a $550 million growth investment in specialty software maker Legora, joined by many others including new investors such as Alkeon Capital and Bain Capital in a deal that valued the company at about $5.55 billion. The Swedish company's applications use artificial intelligence technology designed for legal work. The fresh capital is expected to help Legora expand in the U.S. as it develops an AI operating system for law firms.

Evolution Equity Partners led a $125 million growth investment in cybersecurity company Kai. The startup is developing agentic artificial intelligence technology to provide enterprise-wide protection against hackers.

Cathay Innovation, Greycroft, Hiro Capital, HV Capital and Bezos Expeditions co-led a $1.03 billion growth investment in Advanced Machine Intelligence, joined by a host of other participants. Also known as AMI Labs, the company was co-founded by Meta Platforms' former chief artificial-intelligence scientist Yann LeCun, Mauro Orru reports for the Journal. The startup is developing AI systems that can better understand the real world than existing models and was valued at about $3.5 billion before the latest investment round.

The impact investing arm of Bregal Investments, Bregal Sphere, is backing ecosystem restoration and project management company Imperative Global Solutions with a $500 million commitment to the Singapore-based business. Imperative raises capital to fund restoration projects such as replenishing a subtropical thicket biome in South Africa, starting with an evergreen shrub called spekboom.

Edison Partners acquired fundraising companies Tatango and Givergy and combined the businesses to launch momoGood. Vocap Partners participated as a minority investor. MomoGood will be led by CEO Matt Combs, who sold his company YourCause to Clearlake Capital-backed Blackbaud. It will have more than 2,500 nonprofit, political and enterprise customers in North America, Europe, Hong Kong and Australia.

Trinity Capital is providing $35 million in growth capital to Neuros Medical, a technology developer focused on post-amputation recovery. The fresh capital will help the company commercialize its nerve stimulation system used to manage pain.

Our add-on deal interactive tool allows you to sort and analyze volumes of add-on deal data compiled by WSJ Pro. View more.

Buyout firms including TPG have sold clean-energy systems developer Intersect to Google for $4.75 billion, plus assumed debt, and spun out certain Intersect assets to form a new business called IPX Power. Other Intersect sellers included Climate Adaptive Infrastructure and Greenbelt Capital Partners. All three firms plus Google are backing the spin-out, which owns clean-energy assets serving utilities and other customers across California and Texas. The assets include 4.4 gigawatts of solar photovoltaic energy and 8.8 gigawatt hours of battery storage under construction or in operation. The TPG Rise Climate strategy initially backed Intersect in 2022 and brought Google in as a strategic partner in 2024.

Insurer and investment manager Fairfax Financial Group is selling about half of its remaining investment in Poseidon, the holding company that owns containership operator Seaspan, for about $1.91 billion, Robb M. Stewart reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Toronto-based Fairfax and other investors backed Poseidon's acquisition of listed maritime-asset owner Atlas in 2023 through a roughly $11 billion deal. The Canadian firm still owns about 22% of Poseidon.

Warburg Pincus-backed lender Truhome Finance in India has filed for an initial public offering, local news service Mint.com reports, citing the Securities and Exchange Board of India. The company focuses on financing affordable housing. Warburg backed the business in late 2024.

Lakeview Capital is selling My/Mochi Ice Cream to strategic buyer Morinaga & Co., exiting the largest mochi brand in the U.S. The brand-focused investor acquired the business in early 2020. Law firm Ropes & Gray advised Lakeview on the deal.

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners has raised €1.3 billion, or roughly $1.5 billion, so far for its Copenhagen Infrastructure Green Credit Fund II, putting it more than halfway to its €2 billion goal for the fund and related vehicles. The Danish firm has already made its first investment from the fund, backing a collection of Dutch solar-energy and battery storage assets.

Peter Thiel's firm is nearing a $6 billion goal for Founders Fund Growth IV, technology news site TechCrunch reports, citing people close to the investment shop. One source said firm partners are committing $1.5 billion to the new growth-investment vehicle. The firm had raised at least $4.6 billion for the fund's predecessor by last April, WSJ Pro has reported.

French bank BNP Paribas has closed its debut European general-partner stakes fund with €540 million, or around $628.2 million, in commitments, Sebastian McCarthy writes for sister publication Private Equity News in London. The lender closed Prime Capital Partners I (PCP 1) above its original €400 million target.

Growth investor Glade Brook Capital Partners in Greenwich, Conn., has closed on more than $1 billion for its Glade Brook Gondola Fund, a technology-focused continuation vehicle anchored by commitments from StepStone Group with BlackRock also participating. The fund's assets include investments made through Glade Brook Strategic Growth III, which the firm closed in 2022 with $430 million to invest in as many as 15 tech companies. The Gondola fund was established to provide cash-out options to SG III investors.

The ABN AMRO Boston Common Emerging Markets ESG Equities UCITS Fund has surpassed $1 billion in assets, including about $810 million in institutional capital received since October. The fund is guided by Boston Common Asset Management on behalf of ABN AMRO Investment Solutions and is invested in emerging markets.

Eagle Point Credit Management has raised $559 million for its secondaries-focused Defensive Income Fund III, surpassing a $400 million target and reaching the vehicle's hard cap. The firm invests from the fund in debt securities held by other investors, which it refers to as portfolio debt securities. Since the strategy's launch in 2020, Eagle has invested over $8 billion. The strategy currently has assets of more than $6 billion.

StepStone Group announced a wave of senior promotions at the firm, including 11 new partners. The newest class of partners includes members of the firm’s private equity team: Clodagh Coghlan, Aditya Fontana-Raina, Carson Kvaternik, Ted Panarese and Panos Tegos.

Blackstone has hired former UBS banker Simona Maellare as head of private wealth for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Paul Clarke reports for sister publication Financial News in London. She was most recently co-head of UBS’s alternative capital group.

OceanSound Partners has hired Laura Noisten as a principal, capital markets to lead capital markets and leveraged finance activities at the firm. Noisten previously served as a vice president in the debt capital markets group at TPG.

Family-backed Stephens Group in Little Rock, Ark., has moved up Blake Tilley and Jens Talbert, with both becoming principals in the firm. Both were vice presidents. Talbert joined in 2020 and Tilley came aboard in 2023. Backed by the Witt Stephens and Elizabeth Campbell families, Stephens manages over $2 billion of private-equity assets.

Blackstone and BlackRock can't do much to counter market sentiment or stop the runaway train of negativity about private credit, Telis Demos writes for the Journal. Yet investors should keep in mind that private credit is hardly their only business. For instance, Blackstone’s flagship nontraded real-estate fund recently had its best month for investor flows in years.

First Brands Group’s top creditors are discussing funding a web of legal claims against former insiders tied to the auto-parts seller’s sudden collapse, shifting their focus from rescuing the business to seeking value from litigation, WSJ Pro reports.

Blackstone and Blue Owl have tapped their respective general-partner stakes investing strategies to make minority investments in Atlas Holdings, a Greenwich, Conn.-based firm that backs underperforming or struggling companies. Last year, Atlas closed Atlas Capital Resources V with $6.45 billion, more than double the $3.1 billion raised for a predecessor fund in 2021.

Partners Group's revenue climbed 20% last year to 2.56 billion Swiss francs, or about $3.3 billion, while profit rose 12% to 1.26 billion francs, the firm reported Tuesday. Chief Executive David Layton said realizations totaled $26 billion, and fundraising reached a record during the year, bringing the firm's assets under management to about $185 billion. For 2026, Partners expects to raise as much as $32 billion in new investment capital.

Apollo Global Management is set to offer a new retail-oriented credit fund to 401(k)-style retirement savings plans in the U.K. The CG Apollo Global Diversified Credit LTAF will be invested in private-credit assets, including corporate loans and asset-backed finance products. The New York firm is partnering with Carne Global Fund Managers (UK) to offer the vehicle.

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Sagard's real estate strategy are teaming up to invest in outdoor storage properties in the U.S., initially targeting 490 million Canadian dollars, or $360.6 million, in assets. Initial investments are expected to focus on industrial properties in major coastal markets such as New York, Baltimore and San Francisco.

Private-equity firm IK Partners is looking to open an office in Madrid as part of its expansion plans, sister publication Private Equity News reports from London, citing people familiar with the matter. The firm is mulling a presence in Spain as part of a push into southern Europe.

The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan’s private-equity portfolio posted a 5.3% loss in 2025, ranking it among the Canadian pension’s poorer performing asset classes for the year. The system's assets rose modestly to 279.4 billion Canadian dollars, or around $205.84 billion, at the end of last year, up from C$266.3 billion in 2024.

Multi-strategy firm Ardian in Paris and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority have agreed to set up an operation focused on secondary transactions to acquire property assets from other firms in need of liquidity. Ardian estimates the market saw around $20 billion in deals last year.

Investment firm Taproot Capital in Summit, N.J., is backing private-equity firm Northern Shore Capital in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., with strategic support to help the firm expand more rapidly. Northern's founders, Scott Barry and Hans Pusch, have made substantial commitments alongside Taproot's investment.

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Maria Armental; Ted Bunker; Chris Cumming; Luis Garcia; Laura Kreutzer; Isaac Taylor; Chitra Vemuri.