Despite the continuous growth of BlackRock's ETF business, the pursuit of revenue remains a challenge.

In 2009, when Larry Fink acquired the iShares ETF business from Barclays for approximately $13 billion, the economy was still recovering from the great financial crisis.

At the time, $13 billion seemed like an enormous amount of money to spend on a small business. ETFs were still in their early stages, with only about $700 million in total assets under management, which was a very small amount compared to the trillions in mutual funds.

One of the great financial deals of all time

Fink's gamble has proven to be one of the greatest financial investments of all time, according to these metrics.

Analyzing Blackrock's ETF business in terms of revenue, AUM, and growth potential would be a challenging task.

According to Greggory Warren, equity strategist at Morningstar, Blackrock's total revenue in 2023 was $17.8 billion. Of that, iShares equity ETF generated $4.41 billion and iShares fixed income ETF brought in $1.23 billion. However, they do not provide information on alternative ETFs and multiasset class, which are relatively small.

Blackrock's revenue was about three times that of iShares ETF, and Warren stated that the segment is still expanding.

Revenue growth: Check.

Blackrock's ETF business had $3.85 billion in assets under management, which is approximately double the $1.79 trillion in ETF AUM announced five years earlier in November 2018. This figure includes ETFs listed and traded outside the United States, such as those in London and Canada. However, even if we exclude ETFs outside the U.S., Blackrock still holds the dominant position in total AUM.

ETFs: The total assets under management of the top five ETF providers are $2.9 trillion, $2.7 trillion, $1.3 trillion, $570 billion, and $360 billion, with the remainder being approximately $1.5 billion. Source: ETF Action.

AUM growth: Check.

The inflows into the ETF business in the second quarter were $83 billion, or $150 billion year-to-date, which is roughly one-third of the total inflows into the entire ETF industry.

Inflow growth: check.

Blackrock's ETF business continues to increase in value, with growing revenue, assets under management, and inflows.

The entire ETF business is growing

Blackrock's ETF business is highly profitable, with a total AUM of over $9 trillion, meaning that Blackrock and its competitors dominate the ETF investment market.

The top five ETF providers control about 85% of all ETF assets, despite the existence of over 300 ETF providers.

The search for new revenue is endless

Despite the fee pressure in the ETF industry, the business continues to generate profits, prompting a quest for additional revenue.

No one in the asset management industry can afford to relax based on their assets under management (AUM).

Recently, Blackrock unveiled their LifePath Paycheck program, aiming to gain a foothold in the challenging annuities market. Despite investors' longstanding mistrust of annuities due to low returns and high fees, Blackrock hopes to change perceptions.

LifePath Paycheck utilizes Blackrock's existing framework for target date funds, which adjusts asset allocation as participants near retirement (less equities, more bonds). However, starting at age 55, participants can allocate a portion of their assets to a lifetime-income asset class. At 59½, participants can begin redeeming their investment and purchase annuities from insurers chosen by BlackRock.

Private equity is another area of potential growth. Blackrock recently purchased Preqin, a leading provider of alternative equity data, for approximately $3.2 billion in cash. What they want is more access to private equity data. With the IPO market still range-bound, there's big money to be made in private equity. There's the potential to create indexes for private equity investment.

The creation of an ETF of private equity investments is a challenging task due to the difficulty of buying and selling the underlying private equity assets on a daily basis.

Is it possible to create an index and then synthetically mimic it without owning any underlying private equity? Yes, it is a possibility.

The bottom line: It's good to have a business that scales big

Despite the challenges, this business has the potential to generate billions of dollars in revenue, with minimal costs due to its advanced technology.

And that is what keeps a smile on Fink's face.

Fink stated on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" Monday morning that our company has $2 trillion more in assets than a year ago, despite having the same number of employees. This is a testament to the power of technology.