Billionaire Leon Black’s private-equity firm Apollo Global Management has raised a record $23.5 billion for the world’s biggest-ever buyout fund, according to a report.

The boffo raise eclipses the previous record set by billionaire Stephen Scharzman’s Blackstone Group, which cobbled together a $21.7 billion fund at the height of the buyout boom in 2007, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Black — who shook the art world in 2012 when it was revealed he paid $120 million to buy Edvard Munch’s 1895 pastel “The Scream” — is among the most successful buyout titans, with a net worth estimated by Forbes at $5.8 billion.

Apollo’s new mega-fund, which also beats the firm’s previous record for a fund raise, $18.4 billion in 2013, is the latest example of surging investor appetites for leveraged buyout deals.

London-based CVC Capital Partners gathered $18.1 billion earlier this month, a record for a Europe-based private-equity shop. Meanwhile, buyout giant KKR closed record Asia and North American funds at $9 billion and $13.9 billion, respectively, the Journal noted.

With $197 billion in assets under management, Apollo shelled out $9.6 billion on buyout deals in 2016, a record for the New York-based firm.

Over the past five years private-equity firms have delivered an average net internal rate of return of 15.8%, according to data tracker Preqin.

Hedge funds, which compete with buyout firms for cash, delivered net returns of 7.6 percent over the same period, according to Preqin.