GS Q2 2026 Earnings Analysis
Goldman Sachs posted record Q2 revenue of $20.3B and EPS of $20.98, driven by surging M&A (up 90% YTD), equities strength, and $59B alternatives fundraising.
Key Metrics
Key Takeaways
- Record Q2 revenues of $20.3B and EPS of $20.98 driven by strong M&A (up 90% YTD) and equities activity across Asia.
- Alternatives fundraising hit record $59B in Q2; full-year expected to exceed $125B with $31B in private credit.
- One GS integration strengthening: 900 wealth referrals from banking; top three with 127 of top 150 accounts firm-wide.
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// Full episode scriptWelcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown, bringing you the numbers and the narrative behind them. I'm Alex.
And I'm Jordan. And Alex, we've got Goldman Sachs Q2 2026, and this one's a doozy.
It really is — but before we dive in, quick disclaimer: this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
Good, let's get into it. Record quarter, full stop. $20.3 billion in net revenues, record EPS of $20.98, ROE of 23.5%, ROTE of 25.5%. Those are eye-popping numbers for a bank this size.
Every single segment contributed. Global Banking & Markets alone hit a record $15.5 billion. Advisory revenue up 17% year-over-year — and get this, Goldman crossed $1 trillion in announced M&A volume in just six months, first bank ever to do that.
And they're not just winning deals, they're winning them by a mile. $425 billion ahead of the next closest competitor in announced M&A. That's not a lead, that's a lap.
Equity underwriting revenue up 130%, debt underwriting up 75% — best quarter on record there. A lot of that tied to marquee names too — they were lead bookrunner on the SpaceX IPO and the Alphabet equity raise.
But honestly, the number that made me do a double-take was equities trading. Record $7.4 billion, with intermediation revenue up 60% and equity financing up 91%. CFO Denis Coleman basically said this is the payoff from a multi-year bet on building out their Asia prime brokerage business.
Right, and analysts pushed hard on that in Q&A — is this sustainable, or is it a couple of huge clients driving the number? Coleman pushed back, saying it's broad-based across long-short and quant clients globally, not concentrated in a handful of accounts.
FICC was strong too — $4.6 billion, up 32%, with financing revenue hitting a record. Across FICC and equities combined, financing now makes up 37% of total revenue there. Goldman's essentially been turning its balance sheet into a growth engine.
Let's talk Asset & Wealth Management, because that story's just as interesting. Revenue up 20% year-over-year to $4.6 billion, 34th straight quarter of long-term net inflows, total assets under supervision crossed $4 trillion for the first time.
And alternatives fundraising — $59 billion in the quarter, $85 billion year-to-date. They actually raised their full-year fundraising guidance to over $125 billion. $31 billion of that was private credit alone this quarter.
They also picked up two massive OCIO mandates — Verizon and Lockheed Martin's retirement plans, $70 billion combined in assets. That's the kind of sticky, fee-generating business that makes this segment more durable over time.
Now, the through-line for this whole call was really the AI infrastructure buildout. CEO David Solomon kept coming back to it — data centers, energy, chips, the whole ecosystem is pulling in capital far beyond traditional tech financing, and Goldman's positioning itself as the plumbing for that capital.
He was refreshingly honest about the risk side too. When asked directly about bubble concerns, Solomon said, essentially, "I'm not smart enough to tell you if there's a recalibration coming in six or eighteen months, but over three to five years, we're investing in long-term growth." He didn't dodge the question, but he didn't overpromise either.
That was a theme all call — a lot of "this won't be a straight line, there'll be bumps." Which, from a bank CEO in the middle of a record quarter, is actually a pretty disciplined thing to say out loud.
One more Q&A moment worth flagging — Mike Mayo asked about the "multiplier effect," basically, for every dollar of M&A advisory fee, how much extra business does that generate elsewhere in the firm? Solomon wouldn't give a number, but he described this flywheel — advisory relationships opening doors to financing, capital markets, and wealth management referrals. They've had almost 900 referrals from investment banking into wealth management since the start of 2025.
That's the "One Goldman Sachs" strategy in a nutshell — cross-selling at scale, and it seems to be working. David also shared this stat that stuck with me: six years ago, they were a top-three counterparty with 44 of the top 100 trading clients. Now it's nearly 80 of the top 100, and top three with 127 of the top 150.
On the capital side — they raised the quarterly dividend to $5 a share, a 25% increase year-over-year, and bought back $4 billion in stock this quarter. CET1 ratio sits at 12.9%, comfortably above their regulatory requirement.
Worth noting, their supplementary leverage ratio did dip to 4.3%, the lowest among peers, since so much of that financing growth is leverage-intensive. Management said they're watching it, but aren't near any hard constraint yet.
So what does this mean going forward? The investment banking backlog is at its highest level in five years — second highest on record — even after this blockbuster quarter. That suggests the pipeline isn't just strong, it's still building.
And sponsor-driven M&A — private equity deal activity — hasn't even really kicked back in yet. Management flagged that as real potential upside still sitting on the table.
The bigger picture here is a firm that's more diversified than it was during past investment cycles like dot-com or 2021. Trading, banking, and wealth management are all firing at once, so even if the AI capital cycle cools off at some point, Goldman's earnings base looks more balanced than in prior boom periods.
That's really the story of this quarter — a genuinely strong environment, but also a management team that spent the whole call talking about discipline, risk management, and playing the long game rather than just riding the wave.
Before we wrap, one more important note. Everything discussed is AI-generated analysis for educational purposes. Past performance doesn't guarantee future results. Please do your own due diligence.
Well said. Big quarter for Goldman, and plenty to watch heading into the back half of the year — especially those incentive fees management flagged as ramping up in Q3 and Q4.
That's it for this episode of Beta Finch. Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next time we break down the numbers.
See you then.