Blackstone Group's logo on display during the opening of the company's new office in Singapore.

The coronavirus pandemic is shutting down entire sectors of the economy and putting millions of Americans out of work, but one corner of Wall Street may find opportunity amid the carnage: private equity.

The group, which includes investment giants Blackstone, Carlyle and KKR, has a record $1.5 trillion in cash ready to deploy and has been actively seeking deals across the struggling travel, entertainment and energy industries, according to a half-dozen investment bankers who declined to be identified to speak candidly about potential clients.

"They have been waiting for this type of market dislocation," the head of mergers at a major Wall Street firm told CNBC. "I don't think they wanted something quite this bad, but they did want a pullback in valuation."

Private equity firms have been stockpiling cash in recent years as rising markets made it harder for them to invest, accumulating a record pile of "dry powder" for deals. The industry typically buys undervalued companies with borrowed money, taking them private to spruce up operations for an eventual sale. The high company valuations that kept them at bay collapsed this month amid widespread business closures and quarantines of some of the world's largest cities.

But the confluence of forces at play — an oft-maligned section of Wall Street seeking money-making opportunities in an election year and amid an unprecedented global crisis that has caused thousands of deaths — could invite greater scrutiny on the industry. Critics including Sen. Elizabeth Warren have said private equity firms enrich themselves at the expense of workers and the companies themselves, which sometimes end up in bankruptcy.

"Vulture investors, especially in private equity, are waiting in the wings to scoop up scores of struggling businesses on the cheap," tweeted Rohit Chopra, an FTC commissioner.

The first deals are likely to be investments rather than full-on takeovers, the bankers said. Transactions known as PIPEs, or private investments in public equity, are one way companies under distress can quickly raise cash. The buyer gets shares at a discount, and the new stock typically dilutes the holdings of existing shareholders.

"Private equity is trying to do PIPEs all over the place right now," said a senior investment banker at another top Wall Street firm. The targets are "every industry where stock prices" have collapsed, this person said.

One example of a PIPE made during the last crisis: In 2008, Leonard Green & Partners bought a 17% stake in Whole Foods for $425 million, an investment that yielded more than $1 billion in profit when shares recovered a few years later.

While travel, entertainment and energy companies are in obvious need for cash infusion as demand has evaporated, over the longer term, the coronavirus pandemic could favor industries including health care and home security, according to a presentation from management consultant Bain.