The Biggest Winner in the AI Fundraising Frenzy: Goldman Sachs Remains the King of Wall Street

Amid the AI funding boom sweeping Wall Street, Goldman Sachs is establishing its market dominance with overwhelming strength.

On Monday, three massive AI fundraising deals totaling at least $210 billion closed simultaneously, and Goldman Sachs was involved in each one. On this day, Goldman Sachs co-led Meta Platforms’ $95 billion equity offering—one of Wall Street’s largest stock issuances in recent years—acted as the sole structuring arranger for SpaceX’s $40 billion chip financing deal, and served as the lead-left bookrunner for Anthropic’s IPO—an offering expected to be at least as large as SpaceX’s forthcoming listing in June this year.

These three deals will bring Goldman Sachs at least tens of millions, or potentially hundreds of millions, of dollars in revenue.

The AI financing boom is reshaping competitive dynamics on Wall Street. In the first nine months of this year, the five major Wall Street banks collectively generated more than $19 billion in underwriting revenue, with equity capital markets income surging 48% year-on-year and debt underwriting up 13%. Leveraging its deep layout within the AI ecosystem, Goldman Sachs is transforming this supercycle into tangible business advantages.

$210 Billion in One Day: Three Deals Highlight Market Leadership

Monday’s trio of transactions showcased Goldman Sachs’ comprehensive presence in the AI funding sector.

In the Meta deal, Goldman Sachs was a co-lead underwriter, participating in one of the largest stock offerings Wall Street has seen in years. For SpaceX, Goldman Sachs was not only the only structuring arranger, but its asset management division’s funds also invested directly in the deal—a transaction in which SpaceX procured chips from Nvidia, with Apollo Global Management providing leasing support. According to sources, the transaction originated months ago with SpaceX proactively reaching out to Goldman Sachs.

The Anthropic IPO arrangement took some market participants by surprise. Previously, Morgan Stanley had been leading the expansion of Anthropic's revolving credit facility and was widely expected to play a core IPO role. According to insiders, Goldman Sachs’ relationship with Anthropic has been led by San Francisco bankers Nick Giovanni and Jung Min, the latter of whom is also a core banker to Nvidia.

Years of Cultivating Relationships Fuel the AI Supercycle’s Outbreak

Goldman Sachs’ strong position in AI financing did not happen overnight—it is the result of years of relationship-building.

In June this year, Goldman Sachs was lead-left bookrunner for the SpaceX IPO, earning $100 million in underwriting fees thanks to years of relationship management by senior bankers such as Dan Dees, Kim Posnett, David Ludwig, and Susie Scher. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported Goldman Sachs also gained hundreds of millions in incentive fees through early investments arranged for wealthy clients.

For Alphabet, Goldman Sachs served as an advisor on the Google parent company’s over $80 billion equity offering—one of the largest stock issuances in history—with core bankers Posnett and Yasmine Coupal also leading Monday’s Meta transaction.

To systematically integrate its business lines’ resource advantages, Goldman Sachs last year created a Capital Solutions team, led by Pete Lyon and Mahesh Saireddy, coordinating asset management, investment banking, and even trading businesses to build large-scale integrated financing solutions for clients.

In August this year, Goldman Sachs became the only bank to join Nvidia’s client chip deal financing partnership, pledging $500 billion in financing support for related transactions.

AI Funding Boom in Full Swing, but Risks Quietly Emerge

While Goldman Sachs and other major Wall Street banks are greatly benefiting from the AI financing frenzy, there are growing divergences regarding its sustainability.

As both debt and equity inflows into AI continue to surge—and given the high burn rates in cutting-edge AI labs—some market participants are starting to worry that such fundraising may carry sustainability risks. These concerns are starting to show in the equity and debt performance of some companies—neocloud firms like CoreWeave, which power AI model development and operations, have seen their share prices drop significantly over the past month.

However, at the Bernstein Annual Strategic Decisions Conference this May, Goldman Sachs President John Waldron stated: “We feel that we are at the core of this investment supercycle.” That statement may be the most apt summary of Goldman’s current position.