The fifth annual CAIS Alternative Investment Summit will bring more than 1,250 financial advisors, alternative asset managers and bank issuers to the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, from October 12–15, 2026. Organized by CAIS, the alternative investment platform serving independent financial advisors, the four-day event will focus on the changing relationship between private markets, wealth management, artificial intelligence, geopolitics and portfolio construction.
The 2026 speaker lineup extends well beyond investment management. Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates will discuss American power, policy and the geopolitical environment. Mark Messier, NHL Hall of Famer, ESPN analyst and entrepreneur, will appear with Eldridge co-founder, chairman and CEO Todd Boehly for a session examining leadership and performance.
Much of the program, however, centers on a major transformation underway in wealth management: private assets are moving deeper into portfolios that historically concentrated on publicly traded stocks and bonds. CAIS says transaction volume on its platform increased 53% year over year during the first half of 2026, while total platform assets increased 55%. The Summit will examine how advisors and asset managers are responding as alternative investments become a larger component of portfolio construction.
Some of the biggest names in global asset management will participate. Goldman Sachs President and COO John Waldron will join T. Rowe Price CEO Rob Sharps and Oak Hill Advisors founder and CEO Glenn R. August for a discussion of expanding access to private markets. Blue Owl Capital co-CEO Marc Lipschultz and Lord Abbett CEO Douglas Sieg will examine consolidation, scale and strategy across the asset-management industry.
Artificial intelligence will have a prominent place on the agenda. Vista Equity Partners founder, chairman and CEO Robert F. Smith and SambaNova Systems CEO Rodrigo Liang will discuss investment opportunities across the AI technology stack. The subject is particularly relevant for alternative investors because the AI buildout increasingly extends beyond semiconductor companies into data centers, energy, networking, software and the enormous amounts of private capital required to finance new infrastructure.
That infrastructure requirement leads directly into another major Summit theme. KKR’s Brandon Freiman, Blackstone’s Mike Forman and Nuveen’s Jessica Bailey will discuss what CAIS describes as a trillion-dollar opportunity in digital infrastructure and real assets. With AI computing increasing demand for data centers, electricity generation, grid capacity and related physical infrastructure, some of the largest alternative asset managers are positioning private capital as an important source of financing for the next phase of the digital economy.
Portfolio construction will receive its own examination through a session featuring executives from BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, HarbourVest Partners and Apollo. The discussion will look at how advisors can allocate capital across public and private markets rather than treating alternatives as a separate corner of a portfolio.
Private credit, one of the fastest-growing segments of alternative investing, will also feature prominently. Monroe Capital Chairman and CEO Ted Koenig, Third Point CEO Dan Loeb and Fortress Investment Group co-CEO and Managing Partner Drew McKnight will discuss the continuing shift of lending activity from traditional banks toward private capital. The development has created a much larger investable private-credit market while simultaneously changing how companies obtain financing.
Carlyle CEO Harvey Schwartz and co-founder and co-chairman David Rubenstein will participate in a fireside conversation that will also include a special lifetime achievement presentation to Rubenstein. CAIS founder and CEO Matt Brown will join the session, moderated by CNBC’s Scott Wapner.
The increasingly close relationship between alternative capital, professional sports and media will provide another angle. Executives from Apollo and Ares will examine the growing value of controlling sports and media platforms and audiences. Institutional investors have become increasingly active across professional teams, leagues, media rights, venues and related businesses, turning sports into a significant alternative-asset category rather than simply a collection of trophy investments.
Alongside the main-stage discussions, the Summit will include closed-door meetings, case studies and asset-class-specific CAIS Talk sessions. The CAIS Tech Lab will give advisors demonstrations of new platform capabilities, including AI tools and integrations intended to simplify the alternative-investment process.
That technology component reflects an interesting tension running through the 2026 event. AI is automating more financial analysis and investment workflows, yet CAIS is simultaneously expanding an event built around face-to-face relationships. Founder and CEO Matt Brown argues that technological change actually increases the importance of trusted connections, education and direct dialogue between advisors and asset managers.
The 2026 CAIS Summit consequently sits at the intersection of several of the largest changes taking place in investment management. Private credit is taking a larger role in global lending, private equity and infrastructure capital are moving deeper into the AI buildout, and wealth managers are looking for ways to bring private-market investments to a broader investor base. At the same time, AI is beginning to change the technology through which those investments are researched, distributed and managed.
Bringing more than 1,250 participants together in Beverly Hills gives CAIS a substantial forum for that discussion. With senior executives from Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, KKR, Carlyle, Apollo, BlackRock, Vista Equity Partners and other major financial institutions on the program, the fifth CAIS Alternative Investment Summit is shaping up as a significant gathering for the private-markets and independent-wealth industries in 2026.