Private Equity Firms Are Sitting on Nearly 34,000 Unsold Companies. That Pileup Is Getting Worse

Amid high interest rates and an AI boom, PE is struggling to sell. Small business owners could suffer as a result.

BY BRIAN CONTRERAS, STAFF WRITER @_B_CONTRERAS_

Illustration: Adobe Stock

Private equity’s backlog is massive—and only getting bigger.

New data from the markets research firm PitchBook indicates that at the end of June, 33,575 portfolio companies were sitting unsold under PE ownership.

That’s a noticeable increase from the end of 2025, when the industry’s portco count sat at 32,451—and an especially stark jump from the estimated 15,923 companies held by private equity a decade ago.

Failing to sell these companies is a big problem for PE, which makes its money by—at the most........

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