People often conflate correlation with causation when it comes to major asset managers and their market presence. Take the massive institutional funds for example—they hold equity stakes across virtually every publicly traded company you can think of. But here's the thing: most of that capital is deployed passively. These funds are designed to mirror market indices, so they're essentially buying whatever the broader market comprises. It's not a conspiracy or coordinated strategy; it's just how index-tracking investments work at scale. When you're managing trillions in assets, passive allocation becomes the default approach rather than active stock picking. Understanding this distinction matters because it separates actual strategic influence from simple portfolio mechanics.