Committed but uncalled capital available for new investment — the GP's deployment runway. Industry-wide PE dry powder grew from ~30 billion in 1990 to over 4 trillion by the mid-2020s, reflecting fundraising outpacing deployment. Elevated dry powder pressures multiples upward (more capital chasing the same deal pipeline) and is a leading indicator of future deployment-driven competition. LPs monitor dry powder as a quality signal: a GP that cannot deploy its previous fund within the investment period faces fundraising friction on the successor.