Goldman Sachs

“For our own operations, we have a leading team of engineers dedicated to exploring and applying machine learning and artificial intelligence applications. We are focused on enhancing productivity, particularly for our developers, and increasing operating efficiency while maintaining a high bar for quality, security, and controls.”

“In addition, the emergence, adoption and evolution of new technologies, including distributed ledgers, such as digital assets and blockchain, and AI technologies, have required us to invest resources to adapt our existing products and services, and we expect to continue to make such investments, which could be material.”

“We expect that we will have the capacity to continue to invest and fuel productivity opportunities that arise from AI and from general firm process rewiring.”

“It started with productivity and a more narrow component of the firm called engineering. Based on leveraging the firm's relationships with a number of different sort of large language model providers and investing in sort of very high-quality engineering talent, frankly, hiring a bunch of engineers from the outside to complement our already excellent team, we're finding very effective ways to deploy it inside of the firm.”

“Quarterly non-compensation expenses increased from the prior year to $5.6 billion, with the increase driven by transaction-based expenses tied to robust activity levels, particularly in equities.”

“Further, we may rely on AI models developed by third parties, and, to that extent, would be dependent in part on the manner in which those third parties develop and train their models, including risks arising from the inclusion of any unauthorized material in the training data for their models, and the effectiveness of the steps these third parties have taken to limit the risks associated with the output of their models, matters over which we may have limited visibility.”

“It started with productivity and a more narrow component of the firm called engineering. Based on leveraging the firm's relationships with a number of different sort of large language model providers and investing in sort of very high-quality engineering talent, frankly, hiring a bunch of engineers from the outside to complement our already excellent team, we're finding very effective ways to deploy it inside of the firm.”

“For our own operations, we have a leading team of engineers dedicated to exploring and applying machine learning and artificial intelligence applications. We are focused on enhancing productivity, particularly for our developers, and increasing operating efficiency while maintaining a high bar for quality, security, and controls.”

“Double-clicking and getting more narrowly focused on Goldman Sachs, I would just say we see enormous opportunities for productivity gains and also opportunities for efficiency. Our use cases that we're testing and that we're implementing focus on those two areas.”

“Just as we are helping clients navigate this period of change, we are also implementing learnings within our own firm. There has been much debate around the broader implications of AI on the workforce. It will change how work gets done, it will not replace what matters most in driving our business, our extraordinary people.”

“We expect that we will have the capacity to continue to invest and fuel productivity opportunities that arise from AI and from general firm process rewiring.”

“That's been a learning that I think is one of the big pieces of the driver to our efficiency ratio. I would not say that there's been any structural change in our expense base at this point.”

“I think what's interesting and exciting, and I would dovetail with David's comment on the power of AI, some of the technology's letting our people do more and be more productive, and that's the way we're thinking about investing.”

“As they become more productive, they may feel less need to replace people that in the ordinary course flow through the system. Right now, it's not a moment for a structural rework of our human capital footprint.”

“I think those numbers are an output of the efforts that we're undertaking, and it's not the result of some specific target.”

“I frankly think it's still early. There are some of the easiest places to generate benefits are what I would refer to as table stakes.”

“As of June 2026, headcount was essentially unchanged compared with June 2025 and decreased 2% compared with March 2026.”

“We see AI as a transformational technology that expands the capabilities of our best-in-class talent.”

“Comp expense is only growing at 30% and non-comp at 22%.”

“For our own operations, we have a leading team of engineers dedicated to exploring and applying machine learning and artificial intelligence applications. We are focused on enhancing productivity, particularly for our developers, and increasing operating efficiency while maintaining a high bar for quality, security, and controls.”

“It started with productivity and a more narrow component of the firm called engineering. Based on leveraging the firm's relationships with a number of different sort of large language model providers and investing in sort of very high-quality engineering talent, frankly, hiring a bunch of engineers from the outside to complement our already excellent team, we're finding very effective ways to deploy it inside of the firm.”

“I frankly think it's still early. There are some of the easiest places to generate benefits are what I would refer to as table stakes.”

“As we look longer-term, to the extent that this technology develops in line with expectations, there will be significant demand for AI-related infrastructure and, as a result, financing, which will be a tailwind to our business.”

“That is creating an ecosystem of activity in our Investment Banking and Markets business that we've seen in the context of other areas of significant shift or macro expansion over a long period of time.”

“At the same time, the AI investment cycle is expanding capital needs beyond core technology into infrastructure, energy and data centers, generating a ripple effect across industries. This is creating significant opportunities for Goldman Sachs to provide structuring, financing, risk management, and capital markets execution across both public and private markets.”

“Beyond the infrastructure buildout, companies large and small are working to integrate AI into their operations, increasing demand for advice and execution capabilities as they adapt to a rapidly evolving competitive landscape.”

“Client activity was particularly strong in Asia, driven in part by robust AI capital formation and investment.”

“The build-out of AI infrastructure remains in its early stages. We believe this multi-year investment cycle will continue to drive elevated levels of strategic activity, financing, and capital formation across markets.”

“We're excited about it. We see lots of opportunities. Those opportunities are very correlated to Goldman Sachs. That cycle is contributing to our earnings momentum, but also just highlights the breadth, depth and diversity of the firm, its franchise, the scale of our management fees across the firm of our more durable revenues.”

“The leveraged finance activity to some degree is around some of the AI infrastructure build, and it's also around recapitalization and refinancing because one of the ways that the sponsor clients can advance or get capital out of businesses is to recap them, and we're seeing a little bit more of that.”

“The investment cycle is, of course, and we said this, it was one of the things I said in my remarks, the investment cycle is having an impact on the environment and therefore our earnings.”

“I think the frame I reframe it to you is I'm not sure that I can do that in a way where I give you a good answer.”

“During the second quarter of 2026, the operating environment was generally characterized by resilient economic activity, particularly in the U.S., geopolitical concerns, a focus on investments related to artificial intelligence (AI) and uncertainty in the outlook for inflation and international trade policies (including tariffs).”

“Investment banking fees were $3.40 billion, 55% higher than the second quarter of 2025, primarily due to significantly higher net revenues in Equity underwriting, primarily reflecting significantly higher net revenues from secondary and initial public offerings, and in Debt underwriting, primarily reflecting significantly higher net revenues from leveraged finance and asset-backed activity.”

“There's a lot of talk about token spend and the cost of the technology. I think we're early in the cycle to build out, but it won't be without bumps and recalibrations as people can understand just what the ultimate demand is for this technology and enterprises.”

“As we look longer-term, to the extent that this technology develops in line with expectations, there will be significant demand for AI-related infrastructure and, as a result, financing, which will be a tailwind to our business.”

“That is creating an ecosystem of activity in our Investment Banking and Markets business that we've seen in the context of other areas of significant shift or macro expansion over a long period of time.”

“At the same time, the AI investment cycle is expanding capital needs beyond core technology into infrastructure, energy and data centers, generating a ripple effect across industries. This is creating significant opportunities for Goldman Sachs to provide structuring, financing, risk management, and capital markets execution across both public and private markets.”

“The build-out of AI infrastructure remains in its early stages. We believe this multi-year investment cycle will continue to drive elevated levels of strategic activity, financing, and capital formation across markets.”

“We see lots of opportunities to deploy capital to our clients to finance this infrastructure build-out. We're very disciplined about the returns we expect for deploying that capital.”

“We're excited about it. We see lots of opportunities. Those opportunities are very correlated to Goldman Sachs. That cycle is contributing to our earnings momentum, but also just highlights the breadth, depth and diversity of the firm, its franchise, the scale of our management fees across the firm of our more durable revenues.”

“We are in the middle of an AI CapEx super cycle where there are demands on financing into every single financing instrument, in every region of the world and across every single industry.”

“There's a lot of talk about token spend and the cost of the technology. I think we're early in the cycle to build out, but it won't be without bumps and recalibrations as people can understand just what the ultimate demand is for this technology and enterprises.”

“For example, in response to the proliferation of AI-enabled fraud and ransomware attacks that continue to be reported globally, we have emphasized phishing and cybersecurity training for our employees and allocated additional resources for business continuity.”

“Further, the use of AI by cybercriminals may increase the frequency and severity of cybersecurity attacks against us or our third-party vendors and clients.”