Over the past decade, private credit lenders didn’t just grow, they became the de facto lender to many of the middle market businesses in America. The transition created genuine value for borrowers and attractive income for investors. That rapid rise helped to bring private credit into the mainstream, and assets under management grew substantially. Between 2014 and 2024, the size of the private credit market roughly quadrupled, with total AUM growing from about $500 billion to over $2 tri