The 300 companies on this year’s list brought in over $12.5 trillion in revenue for the latest 12 months, with the median revenue figure at $24 billion.

America's Most Innovative Companies

AI is a major force shaping this year’s list—but it’s far from the only story.

World's Most Admired Companies

The corporations on our annual list of the world's 500 largest companies combined to generate $41.7 trillion in revenue over the past year.

Fortune Global 500

Almost $20 trillion in revenue—and a record-breaking $1.87 trillion in profits. Introducing the 2025 Fortune 500, the definitive list of the biggest companies in America.

Fortune 500

The 300 companies on this year’s list brought in over $12.6 trillion in revenue for the latest 12 months, with the median revenue figure at $22 billion.

Leaders in all industries rely more than ever on Big Tech—and appreciate the giants that deliver, at scale, without drama.

The corporations on our annual list posted aggregate revenues of $41 trillion for the second year in a row.

Industries included in the sector are banks, insurance, and real estate companies.

Fortune Sector Leaders: Financials

The Fortune 500, in its 70th year in 2024, ranks the biggest U.S. companies by revenue.

The 26th edition of the list shows how much esteem Big Tech giants command among other business leaders.

WMA-2024-Goldman-Sachs

The 25th Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies list suggests that tech giants’ peers respect them as much as ever.

WMAC 2023-Goldman Sachs

The corporations on our annual list of the world’s largest companies delivered a record $41 trillion in aggregate revenues.

The Fortune 500, in its 69th year in 2023, ranks the biggest U.S. companies by revenue.

F500-2023-055-Goldman-Sachs

The financial services firm, best known for its prominent investment banking wing and asset management unit, rose two spots on this year’s list, growing revenue 5.7% despite a tumultuous year for the financial sector. 
<ul> 
 	<li>The company brought in $68.7 billion in revenue as it opened new offices and expanded its client base.</li> 
 	<li>Goldman Sachs’ profits plunged in 2022 as the private and public markets took a beating. The bank brought in $11.3 billion, down 48% from the year prior.</li> 
 	<li>In May 2023 the firm reportedly noted in an internal memo its plan to open an office in Abu Dhabi, thus expanding its Middle East footprint.</li> 
 	<li>Also in May, the firm agreed to pay $215 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging Goldman Sachs had been underpaying women across several divisions.</li> 
</ul>

Just as it dominates our economy, Big Tech now dominates Fortune’s annual ranking of corporate reputation.

WMAC 2022-21-Goldman Sachs

Aggregate sales hit $37.8 trillion last year—an increase of 19%, the highest annual growth rate in the list’s history.

Fortune collaborated with the Diligent Institute to rank the most innovative boards of directors among S&P 500.

Modern Boards 2022 Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs scored high in gender equality and board expertise. The board of the investment banking giant is led by Adebayo O. Ogunlesi, who is the chairman and managing partner of private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners and before that was an executive at Credit Suisse. Former president of Harvard University Drew G. Faust is on Goldman’s board, as is Michele Burns, the former CFO of Marsh &amp; McLennan Cos. and CEO at Mercer, the human resources consultancy; Ellen J. Kullman, former CEO of DuPont; and Jan E. Tighe, a former vice admiral of the Navy, where she was deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare and director of naval intelligence.

Fortune Modern Board 25

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 68th running of the list.

F500 2022-Goldman Sachs

Coming off a record year in pretty much everything, Goldman Sachs barreled into 2022 ready to do more. The bank reported record net revenues in 2021, while leading the field in announced and completed mergers and acquisitions. It advised on over 200 deals in 2021, which together were valued at more than $1 trillion and represented a dominant market share of more than 24%. Goldman’s impressive 2021 was dampened somewhat by a less-than-stellar beginning to 2022, when it recorded a 42% slump in Q1 profits. The invasion of Ukraine has made the dealmaking environment much less appealing, despite promising growth for Goldman’s wealth management and trading arms.

After a year in which humanity leaned more heavily than ever on tech giants, see which companies topped Fortune's ranking of corporate reputation.

WMAC 2021-26-Goldman Sachs

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G500-2021-193-GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP

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This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 67th running of the list.

F500-2021-59-Goldman Sachs

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Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For

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G500-2020-202-Goldman-Sachs

For much of its long history, Goldman Sachs served corporations and wealthy clients, not average individuals. In search of more predictable sources of revenue, the bank is now looking to Main Street and beyond. Under the leadership of CEO David Solomon, Goldman Sachs has expanded its push into consumer banking, grown its wealth management business, and launched a treasury services business for corporations, all with the aim of offsetting volatile revenues from trading. Its consumer push is making a big splash: Last year, the bank announced that it was issuing tech giant Apple’s digital-first credit card.

The 40 companies highlighted on this year's list support personal growth, outside-the-box thinking, and diversity in the workplace.

best workplaces new york 2020-The Goldman Sachs Group

Employees say: 
 
"From the most senior person to the most junior, people here are extremely responsive and generally willing to help each other regardless of title."

35 Best Large Workplaces in New York

The best workplaces in financial services and insurance balance technological growth with the well-being of their talent.

Best Large Workplaces in Financial Services- 2020-The Goldman Sachs

Employees say: 
“It's a rare combination in that the organization is comprised of competitive, driven, and impressive people; that said, it's the most collaborative environment that emphasizes team culture and rising tides lifting all ships like no place else.” 
Read Great Place to Work review .

Best Large Workplaces in Financial Services and Insurance

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 66th running of the list.

F500-2020-060-Goldman-Sachs

For much of its long history, Goldman Sachs served corporations and wealthy clients, but not average individuals. Now, in search of more predictable sources of revenue, the bank is looking to Main Street and beyond. Under the leadership of CEO David Solomon, Goldman Sachs has expanded its push into consumer banking, grown its wealth management business, and launched a treasury services business for corporations, all with the aim of offsetting volatile revenues from trading. In particular, its consumer push is making a big splash: Last year, the bank announced that it was issuing issue tech giant Apple’s digital-first credit card.

Here are the World's Most Admired Companies for 2019 as ranked in their industries. See who made the list.

Our 2019 list of the 100 best companies as ranked by their employees. See which companies made the list.

This year's Fortune Global 500 generated $27.7 trillion in revenues and $1.5 trillion in profits.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 65th running of the list.

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This year's Fortune 500 marks the 64th running of the list.

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This year's Fortune 500 marks the 63rd running of the list.

Here are the World's Most Admired Companies for 2016 as ranked in their industries. See who made the list.

Google/Alphabet is the No. 1 place to work for the seventh time in 10 years. Six newcomers include Veterans United at No. 30, Hilton Hotels at No. 56, and Slalom Consulting at No. 100. IKEA’s U.S. arm returns to the list, along with GoDaddy and Sheetz.

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This year's Fortune 500 marks the 61st running of the list. Wal-Mart claims the top spot again. See who made the list.

Google tops the list once again, marking its eighth appearance and fifth time as No. 1.

Global business is back. After limping through a worldwide financial crisis and economic slowdown, the 500 largest companies ranked by revenues shattered all sorts of performance records in 2013: They racked up combined revenues of $31.1 trillion, up 2.5% from 2012, and profits soared 27% to nearly $2 trillion. China’s 95 companies (up from 89 last year) posted $5.8 trillion in revenues. The U.S. has four fewer companies on the list than last year but remains (for now) the country leader, with 128 corporations on the list—including No. 1 Wal-Mart Stores—reporting $8.6 trillion in revenues. 

Wal-Mart stayed on top as its sales crept closer to half-a-trillion dollars. Apple moved into the top five. And UnitedHealth Group continued its steady climb. 

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Goldman Sachs Group is a global investment banking, securities, and investment management firm. It caters to corporations, financial institutions, and high-net-worth individuals. In 2023, it was the world’s second-largest investment bank by revenue. In 2019, Goldman partnered with Apple to introduce the Apple credit card. Almost four years later, the bank was looking for an exit from the arrangement, part of its efforts to scale back its retail ambitions.

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Goldman Sachs Group (GS): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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Goldman Sachs Group

goldman sachs group

Good morning. My name is Katie, and I will be your conference facilitator today. I would like to welcome everyone to the Goldman Sachs first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. On behalf of Goldman Sachs, I will begin the call with the following disclaimer. The earnings presentation can be found on the Investor Relations page of the Goldman Sachs website and contains information on forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures. This audiocast is copyrighted material of the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. and may not be duplicated, reproduced, or rebroadcast without consent. This call is being recorded today, April 13th, 2026. I will now turn the call over to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David Solomon and Chief Financial Officer Denis Coleman. Thank you. Mr. Solomon, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Thank you all for joining us. In the first quarter, we delivered a very strong performance, generating net revenues of $17.2 billion, net earnings of $5.6 billion, and earnings per share of $17.55, all three of which were the second highest in the history of Goldman Sachs. As a result, we delivered a return on equity of 19.8% and an ROTE of 21.3%. These results reflect the strength of our global franchise and the depth of our relationships and our ability to execute for clients while maintaining a strong focus on risk management in a highly dynamic environment. 2026 began with a degree of optimism. Markets hit record highs and confidence continued to build, with most clients focused on growth, strategic activity, and capital deployment.

As we've said, things rarely move in a straight line, and as the quarter progressed, the macro environment started to weigh on sentiment. Volatility increased meaningfully amid concerns around AI-driven disruption in sectors like software, heightened uncertainty in parts of private credit, and the conflict in the Middle East. Against this backdrop, our performance underscores the importance of having a scaled, diversified, and global franchise that can support clients across a wide range of market conditions. Operating as a leading global financial institution requires deep expertise, long-term investment, and a culture grounded in risk discipline. This is what differentiates Goldman Sachs and what clients rely on, particularly in periods of uncertainty. We pride ourselves on being a trusted advisor and providing timely and differentiated insights. This quarter, we held large-scale calls and events reaching tens of thousands of clients across the firm.

We also saw elevated engagement with our digital channels, including Marquee, with monthly average users up over 30% YoY in our Global Investment Research portal, which saw its second highest single day of client activity in early March. Beyond analysis and insights, our people operating as One Goldman Sachs delivered for clients in real time as conditions evolved quickly. In Global Banking & Markets, we delivered record quarterly revenues, reflecting strong client engagement across our franchise. Elevated uncertainty led clients to actively reposition portfolios, driving strong flows across FICC and equities. We supported our clients' intermediation and financing needs across asset classes, deploying our balance sheet in response to demand. In our commodities franchise, we acted as an intermediary for our clients amid significant moves in energy markets, including a record monthly increase for Brent Crude in March and price surges of 60% in European gas markets.

Importantly, the growth of our financing business has added further ballast to our performance, reinforcing our ability to perform consistently across cycles. In investment banking, we remain the number one M&A advisor globally. Clients continue to turn to Goldman Sachs for advice and expertise regarding their most important strategic transactions amid a backdrop of accelerating technological change and industry disruption. This includes the announced $43 billion merger of Unilever's food business with McCormick, Sysco's $29 billion acquisition of Jetro Restaurant Depot, and Coterra Energy's $26 billion sale to Devon Energy. While market conditions tempered execution for IPOs and sponsor activity broadly, we believe that activity levels will rebound once conditions stabilize. As you remember, our backlog closed 2025 at its highest level in four years. Even with exceptionally strong revenue production, our quarter-end backlog remained extraordinarily robust.

In asset and wealth management, clients continue to choose Goldman Sachs for the quality of our advice and our longstanding investment track record. We generated $62 billion in long-term fee-based inflows, including $22 billion in wealth management flows. The consistent inflow momentum throughout the quarter, including during the heightened volatility in March, underscores the strength of our client relationships built on trust and long-term performance. We are pleased to have closed the acquisition of Innovator in the second quarter, which adds an additional $31 billion in assets under supervision across a suite of over 170 ETFs focused on defined outcome strategies, putting us in the top ten of global active ETF providers. In alternatives, we raised $26 billion across asset classes, with private credit strategies generating $10 billion. We recognize that the private credit industry has been an area of increased focus in recent months.

Our 30-year track record of performance in private credit is characterized by rigorous underwriting, selective deployment, and disciplined portfolio construction. In our largest non-traded BDC, as an example, we saw net inflows of over 7% this quarter, reflecting investor demand for experienced investment managers who have navigated multiple rate and credit cycles. Looking forward, our predominantly institutional drawdown structures, as well as the breadth of our origination funnel, give us the flexibility to continue to patiently and selectively invest capital. Overall, we feel good about the long-term opportunity of private credit and our ability to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns for clients. Let me spend a moment on capital and regulation more broadly. We've been consistent in our view that a strong, well-capitalized banking system in the U.S. is essential, and that strength has been clearly demonstrated across multiple stress periods.

At the same time, we have also been clear that the regulatory framework needs to be transparent and calibrated appropriately to achieve its objectives. Getting this right matters for the real economy. A well-calibrated framework enables banks to provide liquidity, support lending and capital formation, and serve clients more effectively. Ultimately, a strong U.S. banking system supports growth, competitiveness, and economic resilience. Against that backdrop, we're encouraged by the direction of regulatory reform, including the recent Basel III finalization and G-SIB surcharge re-proposals. While the rulemaking process is still underway, and we plan to participate in the comment period, we believe this direction is positive for the banking system as a whole, better aligning regulatory outcomes with actual risk. All in, we continue to see the potential for a more constructive backdrop this year.

The combined effects of fiscal stimulus in developed economies, ongoing AI-related capital investment, and a more balanced regulatory agenda in the U.S. are powerful forces. At the same time, the geopolitical landscape remains very complex, and the ultimate impact of higher energy prices on inflation and growth is yet to be determined. We believe Goldman Sachs is extremely well-positioned to navigate this current environment. Beyond the short term, we are also investing for long-term growth, including through One Goldman Sachs 3.0. As I mentioned, clients seek our views and analysis around a range of topics, including AI, and we were able to speak to these trends from first-hand experience as we thoughtfully implemented new technologies across our six initial work streams and around the firm more broadly.

We remain confident that over time, One GS 3.0 will drive stronger operating leverage, greater resilience, and improved efficiency and returns, and allow us to continually elevate service to our clients. These efforts build on the strengths that differentiate Goldman Sachs. As we demonstrated this quarter, our deep client relationships, global platform, and strong risk culture position us to serve clients with excellence while creating long-term value for shareholders. With that, I'll turn it over to Denis to walk through our financial results in more detail.

Thank you, David, and good morning. Let's start with our results on page one of the presentation. In the first quarter, we generated our second highest net revenues of $17.2 billion, as well as our second highest earnings per share of $17.55, which drove an ROE of 19.8% and an ROTE of 21.3%. Let's turn to performance by segment starting on page three. Global Banking & Markets produced record revenues of $12.7 billion in the first quarter and generated an ROE of over 22%. Turning to page four, Advisory revenues of $1.5 billion rose 89% YoY on higher completed volumes. We remain number one in the league tables for M&A with a lead of $150 billion in announced volumes versus our closest peer.

Equity underwriting revenues of $535 million were up 45% YoY on better convertibles results, while debt underwriting revenues of $811 million rose 8%, driven by better investment-grade and asset-backed activity. We ranked first in equity and equity-related underwriting and ranked second in high-yield debt underwriting and leveraged lending. FICC net revenues were $4 billion. Within intermediation, revenues in Rates and Mortgages were significantly lower versus the first quarter of last year, as results were impacted by a tougher market-making backdrop. This was partially offset by significantly better results in Currencies and Commodities, illustrating the benefits of having a global, diversified franchise. We produced FICC financing revenues of $1.1 billion. We remain confident in our ability to prudently grow this business over time. Equities net revenues were a record $5.3 billion.

Equities intermediation revenues of $2.7 billion rose 7%, even versus very strong results last year, driven by better performance in cash products. Record Equities financing revenues of $2.6 billion were 59% higher YoY with particular strength in Asia, amid another record for average prime balances in the quarter. As we highlighted in last quarter's strategic update, Asia is one of the key growth opportunities for our FICC and Equities businesses, and while there's still work to do, we're pleased by the progress to date. Across FICC and Equities, financing revenues of $3.7 billion rose 36% versus the prior year and comprised nearly 40% of total FICC and Equities revenues. Let's turn to page five. Asset and Wealth Management revenues were $4.1 billion. Management and other fees were up 14% YoY to $3.1 billion, primarily on higher average assets under supervision.

Incentive fees were $183 million, up YoY despite the volatile environment during the quarter. Private Banking and Lending revenues were $638 million. Higher lending results were more than offset by the impact of NIM compression as we grew deposits in a more competitive rate environment in order to fund broader firm activity. Consistent with our growth strategy, we also expanded our lending to ultra-high-net-worth clients, with balances rising to a record $46 billion. Now moving to page six. Total assets under supervision ended the quarter at a record $3.7 trillion. We saw $62 billion of long-term net inflows across asset classes, representing our 33rd consecutive quarter of long-term fee-based net inflows. Turning to page seven on alternatives. Alternative AUM totaled $429 billion at the end of the first quarter, driving $597 million in management and other fees.

Gross third-party alternatives fundraising was $26 billion in the quarter, putting us on track towards our annual fundraising expectations. On page eight, Platform Solutions revenues were $411 million in the quarter, down YoY, reflecting the move of the Apple portfolio to held-for-sale. We expect revenues for the rest of the year to run lower, in line with seasonal trends in the business. On page nine, Firm-wide net interest income was $3.7 billion in the first quarter. Our total loan portfolio at quarter-end was $253 billion, up versus the fourth quarter, primarily reflecting growth in corporate and other collateralized loans. Our provision for credit losses of $315 million reflected growth and impairments in our wholesale lending portfolio. Turning to expenses on page 10, total quarterly operating expenses were $10.4 billion, resulting in an efficiency ratio of 60.5%. Our compensation ratio net of provisions was 32%.

Non-compensation expenses were $5 billion, with the vast majority of the YoY increase driven by higher transaction-based expenses tied to robust activity levels, particularly in equities. As David referenced, we are thoughtfully building out our One Goldman Sachs 3.0 work streams, and our early learnings have reinforced the need to double down on the foundational elements of our infrastructure. We are therefore accelerating our investments in cloud migration and in the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of our data. These investments are critical to optimizing the deployment of AI solutions across the firm, which will allow us to unlock greater productivity and efficiency opportunities over time. Our effective tax rate for the quarter of 13.2% benefited from the impact of employee stock-based compensation. For the full year, we expect a tax rate of approximately 20%. Now on to slide 11.

Our Common Equity Tier 1 ratio was 12.5% at the end of the first quarter under the Standardized Approach, 110 basis points above our current capital requirement of 11.4%. We saw attractive opportunities to deploy capital across the firm, including in prime brokerage and acquisition financing. These activities, in addition to the increase in market risk RWAs amid higher market volatility, consumed a portion of our excess capital. Additionally, we returned $6.4 billion to common shareholders, including record common stock repurchases of $5 billion and common stock dividends of $1.4 billion. We will continue to dynamically deploy capital to support our client franchise while also returning capital to shareholders. As David mentioned, we're encouraged by the direction of the recent Basel III finalization and G-SIB surcharge proposals, which reflect a more balanced and risk-sensitive approach than earlier iterations.

In conclusion, our performance reflects the diversification and strength of our leading client franchises, which enable us to serve clients in a volatile market. We are confident in our ability to continue to support our clients as they navigate this dynamic operating environment. With that, we'll now open up the line for questions.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now take a moment to compile the Q&A roster. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star two on your telephone keypad. If you're asking a question and are on a hands-free unit or a speakerphone, we would like to ask you to use your handset when asking your question. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question. We'll take our first question from Glenn Schorr with Evercore.

Hi there. Thanks. I guess I would love it if you could expand a little bit on, let's just call it balance sheet strategy, because I see you deploying capital. It's reducing the denominator. But when the CET1 drops 180 basis points, a lot of people ask questions. So, let's just go towards the deposit strategy. Deposits grew a lot. I'm assuming that's to equity financing. I'm curious how you think about the trade-off of lower NII in Asset Wealth, but growing financing, and I guess that feeds into your Asia strategy. Sorry to put a bunch in there, but it all overlaps each other. Maybe you could just expand a little bit on that. Thanks.

Sure, Glenn. Good morning, and thank you for that. I think I would take you back to our strategic update that we gave at the end of the year, where we tried to lay out our expectations for how we were going to respond to the changes in the capital regulation, and that in particular, we'd be focused on deploying into the client franchise to support a bunch of our more durable revenue stream activities, with lending being at the top of the list. As we sit now at the end of the first quarter, you will see that we significantly expanded our activities in equities financing, and a particular area of strategic focus was Asia, something that we also did call out at that time, where we had identified a competitive gap. We saw an attractive opportunity.

With the excess capacity that we saw ourselves with, we deployed into that with clients and grew our revenues. You'll also note that we recorded a record level of lending balances in Private Wealth. We continued to grow FICC financing. We grew our corporate balances, acquisition financing. All of these were the items that we called out as the priority areas for deployment, and we saw opportunities over the course of the quarter to do that. I would be remiss if we didn't mention that we also aggressively returned capital to shareholders at the record level.

Of buybacks. The balance sheet growth was largely in support of those client activities that I just referenced. Separately, you're right, we did have significant deposit-raising activity over the course of the quarter. That remains a strategic source of funding for us that we continue to grow. A lot of that growth did derive through the Marcus platform, which is a benefit to the firm. Some of that activity supports activities in AWM, but as you call out, it supports overall firm-wide lending activities. It was a strategic priority for us to extend more lending on behalf of clients across the firm, and we try to finance it as efficiently as we possibly can.

Okay. Maybe the two-second follow-up is the net of that, I'm going to ask it as a question. Is all the net of that deployment in lending, will that come at ROEs that are in line with your long-term goals?

You'll obviously see that the ROE performance for the firm, the ROE performance for Global Banking and Markets, north of 22% in the case of Global Banking and Markets, where a lot of that deployment is happening. So, across our portfolio of activities, we are generating very attractive returns on that incremental amount of lending activity.

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Ebrahim Poonawala with Bank of America.

Good morning. I guess I just wanted to take a step back. A lot happened during the quarter. David, I appreciate your remarks around the 30-year track record for Goldman and private credit. But, if you don't mind, I think there is a sense that private credit is a significant growth driver for Goldman. For our benefit, given just the growth in this asset class, give us a sense of how you see this potentially impacting sponsor activity when it comes to M&A, IPO. As we think about the next year, FICC financing has been a big focus with investors around how that growth may slow down. I would love some color around how you think this actually coming home to impacting your growth outlook and if anything on credit that you're particularly watching out for. Thank you.

Sure. It's a big-picture question and I appreciate the question, and I could talk about it for a long time. I think there have been attempts to try to put this in perspective. I know the media headlines have driven an enormous amount of negative sentiment around private credit. My own view is it's important to really distinguish between different markets and really try to put it all in perspective. I think you guys know this, that private credit in the broadest definition you could possibly come up with is about three and a half trillion dollars of assets. The thing that's been getting a lot of focus is direct lending, and direct lending is about $1.6 trillion-$1.7 trillion of assets, of which the retail channel for that direct lending business is about 20% or about $230 billion of NAV.

There obviously is heightened redemptions in certain peer-managed funds. These peer-managed funds have been concentrated in retail outflows as opposed to institutional outflows. One of the things that we're seeing that's just interesting, that's quite constructive for our business is that spreads are becoming more lender-friendly. When you look at our first quarter 2026 subscriptions and our GS Credit BDC, 40% of them were from institutions, many of whom are first-time investors on our platforms, including insurance companies, banks, pension funds. When you look at our broad platform, it's over 80% institutional partners, very, very broad, very, very diverse. We've been growing it over a long period of time. You obviously saw our positive inflows and what we raised privately in the quarter. We feel we're very well-positioned, and actually the opportunity set to some degree is improving.

I know people are very focused on the cycle, and they should be. This has been a long period of time, x the COVID shutdown. It's been a long period of time without what I call a normal credit cycle, meaning a meaningful slowdown in the economy or a recession. Whenever you have a meaningful slowdown in the economy or a recession, there are higher loss levels in diversified credit portfolios. I think risk management and portfolio construction are very important in places where people haven't followed their portfolio construction carefully and they've gotten overweighted to a particular sector, they'll obviously have more headwinds. But I think one of the things that's really not getting a lot of attention is if you do have a cycle, what does that look like?

If you take a very tough cycle, the Global Financial Crisis, the cumulative default rates across the entire leveraged lending space during the Global Financial Crisis was 10%. Recoveries were about 50%. The cumulative loss was 5%-6% against coupons of 9%-10%. That is the business model of this. I think institutional investors understand that. I think there's going to continue to be some noise around the retail space. I think you should watch that carefully. I think this continues with any sort of a medium-term or longer-term view to be a very, very attractive platform for us, and we are very confident that we have significant runway to further scale our business toward our $300 billion target. We've seen significant fundraising across all platforms, including this past quarter, $10 billion in credit.

We're going to continue to grow our institutional business and take a long-term view. It's a huge growth channel for us, but it's a business that's growing, and we think has good secular construct for a scaled platform like ours.

Thanks for that, David. Very comprehensive. If I can, quick follow-up. Bank CEOs were in D.C. on Friday around concerns around some of the AI-driven risks to banking infrastructure. Anything you can share with us in terms of is this something extremely different than what banks have had to deal with over the last decade? To the extent you can share any color, I think that would be helpful. How do you perceive the risk to Goldman Sachs? Thanks.

Yeah. Thank you for that. Obviously, something we're focused on. I want to start by saying that cybersecurity has long been at the core of our business, and we have, for a very, very long time, put enormous resources forward to think constantly about cybersecurity risks in our business. It's something we've invested significantly in and continue to invest in. It's been widely reported that the large bank CEOs happened to be in Washington for a regular meeting of the Financial Services Forum, and so we were asked to come over to Treasury. By the way, it is not the first meeting that that group has gone over to Treasury to talk about cybersecurity risks over a number of years. My first point is this is something the industry's focused on. It's something we're focused on, and there's nothing new in that focus.

Obviously, the LLMs are making rapid progress, and we're hyper-aware of the enhanced capabilities of these new models. With the help of the U.S. government and the model publishers, we are very focused on supplementing our cyber and infrastructure resilience, and this is part of our ongoing capabilities that we have been investing in and are accelerating our investment in. We're aware of Mifos and its capabilities. We have the model. We're working closely with Anthropic and all of our security vendors to kind of harness frontier capabilities wherever it's possible. This will continue to be an important focus. It's not new that as technology evolves, we have to continue to upgrade for cyber risk and make sure we're at the forefront of that.

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Erika Najarian with UBS.

Yes. Thank you for taking my questions. David, if you could just unpack a little bit your outlook on the pipeline. I know back in February, we talked about the sponsor community and your thoughts on valuation versus timing. Obviously, a lot has happened more on the negative since then on valuation. Maybe just unpack on how your thoughts are relative to timing. Despite the conflict in the Middle East, markets still near all-time highs, I would love to hear your thoughts on that.

Sure. I appreciate it, and I realize, Erika, this is getting a lot of attention, and I'd just say, first of all, the environment for investment banking activity continues to be incredibly robust, particularly, M&A activity. I do think, as I talk to CEOs, of course, they're watching what's going on geopolitically. That's also balanced by the fact that they see an opportunity during this period of time to drive scale and scale creation in businesses with significant technological change, and they are focused on that. That candidly trumps some of the geopolitical risks because they have the opportunity to do consolidating trades. You saw that in the first quarter. You saw more large-scale strategic M&A. We highlighted at the end of the first quarter the high level of our backlog, the highest level in four years.

You saw extraordinary accruals during this quarter in M&A. You also saw extraordinary replenishment. Okay? The backlog really did not move very significantly at all, even though we had extraordinary accruals. We continue to see significant activity on the M&A front, and unless the overall environment got much, much worse, I don't see that slowing based on what we see at the moment. That said, there's no question that with the conflict in the Middle East, IPO activity slowed a little bit, particularly in March. I do think there's a very full pipeline, and at the end of the day, equity markets have been extremely resilient, and if that resilience continues, I do think you'll see IPO activity accelerate again. There's some very large IPOs that are lined up.

My expectation is a number of them are going to come because it's important for those businesses and for the capital formation around those businesses for that to happen, and they are also less sensitive to short-term geopolitical trends. I do think that the level of uncertainty is higher, and so we have to watch that carefully. Certainly, talking actively to CEOs, and CEOs are looking carefully at how what's going on, particularly with commodity prices, is translating into the economy and into consumer demand. I think it's fair to say that people did not see that really translating through in the first quarter, but that doesn't mean that people aren't extremely cautious about whether or not it will translate through in the second quarter. My guess is to the degree that energy prices remain high, you will see that translate through a little bit.

At this point, the underlying economy still remains relatively robust. If the resolution of the conflict drags, that probably will be a headwind in some of these areas, particularly inflation trends, as we get further into the second and the third quarter. We'll have to watch that quickly. At the moment, M&A and capital markets have been pretty resilient to that, and the environment continues to be quite constructive. Of course, I don't have a crystal ball. I and also all the market participants are watching and adapting as they see things unfold.

Thank you for that. Just to follow up on Ebrahim's line of questioning, because I think it's so important for the stock and the stock of your peers. Given everything you said, David, during the financial crisis, the cumulative loss rate in leveraged lending was 5%-6%. You're seeing more lender-friendly spreads, no issues with fundraising, especially on the institutional side. It seems that if we do have a regular rate cycle, or even just something sector-specific, like software in terms of marks, that the ultimate loss to Goldman will be de minimis, but the opportunity in terms of spreads and market share could be notable. Is that the correct conclusion?

I'm going to make a couple comments on that. I'm also going to ask Denis to make a comment just about historical losses. I think, Erika, you understand it right. Remember, we're generally dealing with institutions. One of the things that happens if we had a slowdown in the economy or recession where credit spreads widened, the business actually for institutional investors becomes more attractive. That is a point in time. Institutions rely on Goldman Sachs, who's been at this for a long time, to have the judgment to be more cautious on their deployment when spreads are historically tight and more aggressive on deployment when spreads are historically wide.

One of the things that I think has not been talked about a lot over the course of a number of years because we haven't seen it, a lot of the alpha that's generated in credit businesses comes from how the investors manage restructurings and buy in when things are tough. We haven't had a cycle like that. I do think we all have to recognize that this has been a very long credit cycle, and when credit cycles go on longer, this is a generalization, this is not the way we think about the business, but spreads get tighter, market participants get more aggressive to deploy capital. When you do have a cycle turn in a recession, you will see higher losses across the space than you would have had if it was a shorter cycle.

We have to be cognizant of that. That said, we feel very good about the way we're positioned, very good about our track record, very good about our flows. To the degree there was a cycle, we'd actually view it as an opportunity for Goldman Sachs. I mean, Denis, maybe you want to comment a little bit more on historical loss rates.

Yeah, I mean, Erika, I could add for you another area that we get questions for obvious reasons is across the FICC financing, the asset-secured lending portfolio of the firm, where a lot of those clientele are in the alternative space. We have a big diversified business that we've been growing, and it's providing part of the ballast to our overall GBM revenues. If we look back over the course of history on our FICC financing activities, our life-to-date realized losses, if you exclude some direct commercial real estate, life-to-date realized losses are zero. That's obviously a nexus, quote unquote, "with private credit" as a subcomponent of that portfolio, and people ask about it a lot, and that may not always be the case.

So far, the way that we underwrite that portfolio, the way we run the stresses, the way that we focus on our collateral protection, our covenant structures, our margining capabilities, that portfolio has realized losses of zero.

Goldman Sachs Group (GS) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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