Oklahoma Teachers approves $1.13 billion for private credit

Trustees of the $28.4 billion Teachers' Retirement System of Oklahoma approved up to $1.13 billion in private investment-grade credit commitments at their October board meeting. The asset class was 4.1% of the portfolio against a 7.5% long-term target.

Executive director Sarah Green said the authorization carries 40% to 60% allocation flexibility to each of two funds, the Apollo Investment Grade Short Duration Fund and Blackstone Credit Rose Rock, according to Alternatives Watch. Trustees heard presentations from executives at both firms with consultant Aon.

For other allocators, closing the gap from 4.1% to 7.5% on a $28.4 billion plan is about $970 million, so the approval reaches the target only as capital is called. The authorization is nearly as large as the plan's existing $1.2 billion private debt portfolio.

Blackstone Credit Rose Rock launched in May, according to public records. Blackstone's credit business manages $557 billion.

Recent financings show both managers deploying in AI infrastructure. Blackstone backed a $63 billion financing arrangement for Anthropic's computing infrastructure alongside Bank of America, Citi and Morgan Stanley. Anthropic has disclosed $895.4 billion in compute and data-center commitments. Apollo led a $40 billion equipment financing for SpaceX to fund Nvidia Vera Rubin chips for a terrestrial computing buildout intended to support Grok AI models and cloud customers.