--- title: "Goldman collects the AI boom's fees and leaves the debt on other balance sheets" description: "Goldman's third-quarter profit rose 29 percent on a financing surge, while the bank underwrote only the $1.3 billion lease-backed slice of a $5 billion AI cloud loan and its strategists stay underweight the credit. The fee and the risk are being placed on different balance sheets, and the structure of the deal is the evidence." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Money" published: 2026-10-13T19:21:02.929Z modified: 2026-10-13T19:21:02.929Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/goldman-collects-the-ai-boom-s-fees-and-leaves-the-debt-on-other-balance-sheets language: en keywords: "Goldman Sachs, AI Debt, Credit Markets, Banking" --- # Goldman collects the AI boom's fees and leaves the debt on other balance sheets > Goldman's third-quarter profit rose 29 percent on a financing surge, while the bank underwrote only the $1.3 billion lease-backed slice of a $5 billion AI cloud loan and its strategists stay underweight the credit. The fee and the risk are being placed on different balance sheets, and the structure of the deal is the evidence. [Goldman Sachs](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/goldman-sachs) has turned the AI build-out into a fee line, and [Tuesday's third-quarter report](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/article/goldman-sachs-profits-surge-29-as-trading-boom-holds-up-better-than-expected-112924603.html) put the number on it. Profit rose 29 percent on the strength of the financing desks and the best advisory quarter in the bank's history [1]. Revenue from equities financing, lending to investors against their positions, nearly doubled, though total revenue cooled from the second quarter's record [1]. The other half of the story is what the bank did with the debt behind those fees: it arranged the borrowing, then stepped out of the way of the risk. ## The build-out arrives at the bank as fees Follow the money's path. A new AI cloud company such as Volta Infrastructure, founded this year by two former Brookfield infrastructure executives, needs tens of thousands of [Nvidia](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/nvidia) GPUs and a data center to run them, and the AI lab [Anthropic](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/anthropic) has signed a six-year agreement for capacity at the Norwegian site [2]. That spending outruns a startup's cash, so Volta is borrowing $5 billion in the leveraged-loan market [2]. The arranging banks take the fees. Chief executive David Solomon [told investors this week](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/goldman-ceo-solomon-says-watch-150912860.html) that financing activity has become a larger and more durable component of Goldman's markets businesses, and that demand for compute still significantly exceeds supply [3]. *Chart: **Goldman's revenue climbed to records as AI financing surged** Column chart of Goldman Sachs quarterly net revenue from Q3 2023 to Q3 2026, rising from about $11.8 billion to a record $20.3 billion in Q2 2026, then easing to $18.7 billion in Q3 2026.* *Quarterly net revenue, USD billions, calendar quarters; Q3 2026 from the October 13 earnings release. Sources: Goldman Sachs SEC filings; Yahoo Finance. [1][4]* ## The arranger underwrote the safe slice and passed on the chips Underwriting is the step where a bank commits to keep the paper if buyers do not appear, and Volta's structure shows the choice. JPMorgan Chase and Goldman underwrote only the $1.3 billion loan, which sits as cash collateral behind a data-center lease [2]. [The $3.7 billion chip loan, the part that buys the GPUs, has no underwriter at all](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-12/jpmorgan-goldman-curb-exposure-on-5-billion-volta-ai-loan-sale) [5]. The package sells as a strip, so a lender wanting the collateral-backed piece must also take the chip loan [2]. That debt is pitched at [a yield of about 11 percent](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/jpmorgan-dangles-11-yield-volta-200522405.html), among the highest of the AI boom, and it is unrated, which keeps out the collateralized loan obligations that usually buy leveraged loans [2]. Goldman's own strategists, having tallied the issuance, [are underweight hyperscaler credit](https://theinference.org/article/goldman-s-fund-desk-is-underweight-the-420-billion-ai-debt-wave-goldman-itself-forecasts), the debt of the big cloud operators [6]. *Chart: **AI-linked debt is headed toward $1.2 trillion on Goldman's own count** Bars chart of AI-linked debt issuance: about $500 billion issued so far in 2026, a projected $750 billion by year-end, and a projected near $1.2 trillion in 2027.* *AI-linked debt issuance, USD billions; the first bar is the 2026 tally to date, the others are Goldman Sachs strategy projections the bank says issuance will approach. Source: FT via AI Weekly. [6]* ## Higher rates press on the project's returns Rates press on the far end of the chain. The Federal Reserve raised rates in September, its first hike in three years, and [Goldman's economists expect another by December](https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2026-09-30/goldman-sachs-pushes-fed-rate-hike-forecast-to-december) [7]. On the earnings call, Solomon said pressure on rates could affect the returns and viability of AI projects, and that Goldman remains highly selective about the AI risk it underwrites [3]. ## The bank's own book is the analysis The arranging is genuine work and deserves its fee: turning a capital-spending need into a fundable structure is what makes the compute exist at all. It is also work the bank has chosen to do without holding the resulting debt. Where Goldman put its own capital instead is the tell. It [spent $3 billion buying back its stock last quarter](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/goldman-sachs-crushes-q3-estimates-145300282.html), at an average price about 12 percent above the market's [8]. ## Two tests land on Wednesday The question for anyone sizing this boom is not whether the fees are real; it is whether the credit is worth holding when the bank that built the market in it will not. Two markers arrive this week. [Morgan Stanley](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/morgan-stanley) reports on Wednesday, October 14, and its equities desk will show whether the surge is industry-wide or Goldman's alone [8]. The same day, commitments close on Volta's $3.7 billion chip loan, which still needs buyers at that yield [2]. ## Takeaway Goldman's financing-led quarter shows the bank pricing the AI build-out without holding it: it underwrote only the $1.3 billion lease-backed slice of Volta's $5 billion loan, left the $3.7 billion chip loan to buyers at 11 percent, and put its own capital into $3 billion of buybacks. ## Sources 1. [Yahoo Finance, David Hollerith, 'Goldman Sachs profits surge 29% as trading boom holds up better than expected,' 13 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/article/goldman-sachs-profits-surge-29-as-trading-boom-holds-up-better-than-expected-112924603.html) 2. [Yahoo Finance (Bloomberg), Paula Seligson and Gowri Gurumurthy, 'JPMorgan Dangles 11% Yield on Volta's $5 Billion AI Loan Sale,' 5 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/jpmorgan-dangles-11-yield-volta-200522405.html) 3. [Yahoo Finance / Investing.com, Vlad Schepkov, 'Goldman's CEO Solomon says to watch political volatility around data centers,' 13 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/goldman-ceo-solomon-says-watch-150912860.html) 4. [Goldman Sachs, quarterly net revenue from its SEC filings, retrieved 13 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000886982) 5. [Bloomberg, Claire Ruckin, 'JPMorgan, Goldman Curb Exposure on $5 Billion Volta AI Loan Sale,' 12 October 2026, updated 13 October 2026](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-12/jpmorgan-goldman-curb-exposure-on-5-billion-volta-ai-loan-sale) 6. [AI Weekly, citing the Financial Times, 'FT: Goldman Sachs Tallies $500B in AI-Linked Debt Issued in 2026, Track to Hit $750B by Year-End,' 1 October 2026](https://aiweekly.co/alerts/ft-goldman-sachs-tallies-500b-in-ai-linked-debt-issued-in-2026-track-to-hit) 7. [Reuters via U.S. News, 'Goldman Sachs Pushes Fed Rate Hike Forecast to December,' 30 September 2026](https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2026-09-30/goldman-sachs-pushes-fed-rate-hike-forecast-to-december) 8. [Yahoo Finance, Gian Estrada, 'Goldman Sachs Crushes Q3 Estimates, but the Stock Still Trades Below Its Own Buyback Price,' 13 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/goldman-sachs-crushes-q3-estimates-145300282.html) --- Goldman collects the AI boom's fees and leaves the debt on other balance sheets — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/goldman-collects-the-ai-boom-s-fees-and-leaves-the-debt-on-other-balance-sheets