Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley see their stocks soar as the AI boom fuels big banks

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley earnings provide a clear picture of Wall Street collecting its cut of virtually every relevant AI transaction

Charly Triballeau / AFP via Getty Images

Talk about a real-time snapshot: Bank earnings season, unfolding this week, has offered perhaps the clearest picture yet of which sectors of the economy are benefitting from this historic capex binge brought on by the AI buildout. Banking is, at it happens, not least among them. Goldman Sachs $GS and Morgan Stanley $MS results together provide a particularly clear picture of Wall Street collecting its cut of virtually every relevant transaction.

Unsurprisingly, the primary financing mechanism is debt. Major tech companies have announced more than $700 billion in capital expenditures for 2026 alone — an eye-watering 70% increase even over last year’s historic numbers — and with such enormous spending, there’s simply no way that cash could cover it all, were it even the case that corporations wanted to finance the buildout that way. This means bond markets are a major channel, and growing at similarly impressive rates, year over year.

As an example, the five major AI hyperscalers issued $121 billion in U.S. corporate bonds in 2025, compared to an average of $28 billion per year in the five years prior. Estimates for 2026 range now from $175 billion to $300 billion, which means the question is whether the market will grow a........

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