Why do you s- think that so many good businesses eventually just hit a ceiling? They get to that can't grow anymore point.

Listen, Jake, that's a really important question to ask is, why? And a lot of...

There are a lot of different possible factors in there.

Number one, did you, do you really understand what the clients want and need from you? Do you really have what they want? And a lot of times when I've sit with clients, what I find is that the owner thinks one way, but the client says, "No, I have a whole other reason to buy you." So first of all, go sit with your best clients and find out why are they buying from you, and then copy it.

The second part is from there is then define who's your best customer.

'Cause a lot of times when I sp- sit with small business owners, even solopreneurs and whatever, you're trying to grab sales from every- anywhere, and the problem, Jake, is that when you spam a market, you're not focused and there is a lot of miss.

And so it looks like you've hit a plateau when in reality you're not talking to the right people.

So I'm just curious, how many times have you seen a company stall or a great product fail just because maybe the owner, the founder, the leadership couldn't let go of old assumptions?

Yeah.

You know, the world cri- the word crisis is thrown around, you know, often in a variety of ways.

9/11 was a very, very serious crisis.

And the effect of 9/11 is we massively scared ourselves as a society.

And because we were so scared, it was, it was a, it was an unexpected exogenous event, and it massively changed behavior.

And that change in behavior led to a recession.

And that required policy to start the recovery process.

Hold on a second

Do you see this as sustainable the rest of the year and into next?

In the current environment, I think you're going to see continued strong issuance in the capital markets, you know, sustainable.

You know, in some ways, we've seen a lot of equity issuance.

But if you go back and you look at equity issuance as a percentage of overall market cap, we look like we're running a kind of 10-year average.

So the numbers are big, but the market's also grown.

The market cap's grown.

The economy's grown.

And I am just curious how you're as one of the most important financial firms in the heart of New York City capitalism, how you're how you're navigating and understanding this world where there's momentum from so-called democratic socialists.

Yeah.

The capital markets have been asset backed financing markets for a long, long time.

You asked the question about capital availability, um, that what we're doing is we're trying to find different ways to raise or to participate in raising the enormous amount of capital that's necessary to fund this infrastructure build-out.

And you're starting to see- In a sense, you know, asset-based financing against this infrastructure bill.

That, that's not surprising because these are real assets.

They have real value.

You can put a tangible value on it, and there's a lot of capital out there.

Is he right? A- a- and he said, "Look, it, it could be a really wonderful thing, or it could be a little concerning because of just the concentration at, at this point." Do you agree with him on that, or, or do you see other places in the economy right now that are driving this?

I don't know, any expectations? Th- y- w- he shared a lot of what he's already shared to the extent he shared not much at all, but what are your expectations for sort of a Warsh, uh, era Fed?

Well, I'm, I'm excited to, uh, to see Kevin in the seat.

Um, you know, I think he's got an enormous amount of experience, um, that can help him shape his leadership as chairman of the Fed.

You know, of course, the, the governors, along with the other regional bank presidents, you know, will work collaboratively to drive monetary policy.

Um, you know, he's got a view as to how he's gonna communicate around that, and you can see him executing on that.

Um, but I also think that Kevin understands that, you know, the role of Fed chair is not just monetary policy.

It's a big, important institution that has responsibilities around regulation, um, and, you know, other issues, and I think he's focused on putting his imprint on the institution.

David, I guess the question really is, is this a one-time peak as a result of this unique moment we find ourselves in, or can this really be something you expect to be a new baseline?

You know, what made you write that? What kind of spurred that op-ed idea for you? And what were you hoping to really get across there?

Well, you know, first of all, I just say that I tend as a CEO and somebody that's running a big business, I tend to think in five or 10 year increments.

And so I'm spending a lot of time thinking about how the world's going to unfold over the next five to 10 years and how Goldman Sachs is going to support our clients and participate in that and how, you know, the evolution of the world shifts what we need to do to be successful as an enterprise.

And so, you know, I think over five to 10 year increments, and I would just say I'm extraordinarily excited about the opportunity, particularly for our country, to really grow productivity and grow the economy as this technology is deployed and gets wrapped into enterprises and helps people be more productive in the context of what they can do.

That doesn't mean that it's going to be a straight line and going to be simple.

In fact, I'm sure, and I stated in the op-ed, that there's going to be dislocation.

as there always has been as technology has scaled and it's deployed into our economy and as there are economic shifts over time.

Is it geopolitics? Is it the war?

Good afternoon, sir.

Thank you so much for the introduction and thank you all for your attendance today.

I'm David Solomon.

I'm the relatively new CEO of Thalia Therapeutics, and I'm delighted to be here today to tell you about our innovative RNA therapeutics programs.

This is our usual safe harbor disclosure.

So Thalia, as you might know in Greek means to flourish or to bloom or to blossom.

And really at Thalia, we are building now a new therapeutics, RNA therapeutics leader and champion.

Looking ahead, at what stage would Thalia look to out-license or partner assets

Mm-hmm.

For me to be effective, I have to be super in touch with what's happening in the market every day.

And I spend time on the weekend also catching up on it.

You know, from my perspective about our stock price, of course it's human nature I'm gonna look and see, but what I really care about is kinda year to year to year.

And what I really believe deeply, and it's been one of the things our leadership team has really been focused on for the last eight years, is if you grow the earnings of the firm, if you invest in growth of the firm and you grow the earnings of the firm, the stock will do just fine.

The multiple will move around, but if you grow the earnings of the firm, the stock will do just fine.

And so we've been focused on investing in the business and growing the earnings of the firm, and we've grown the earnings of the firm materially.

Oh, yeah

Yeah

... of analog in those days, maybe three.

Uh, you had may- a tuner, a turntable maybe, a, maybe a tape deck.

Uh, beyond that there, there were no analog sys- There, there were no analog devices or sources that really even meant anything, uh, because nobody was using them anymore, right? So I started looking at all these analog inputs and thinking h- what a waste of space this was 'cause nobody will ever use them.

And I looked at my partner, I'm going, "What if we built a, a...

What if we built a unit that had two analog inputs and, and four digital inputs? That would be much more relevant to the way people are using their systems these days." And so at that point, we, we thought of the concept and opened the company Peachtree Audio, which really put this in mind.

And a- and, and at this s- at this time p- people still weren't streaming, this was around 2004, people still weren't streaming over the air.

Yes.

Um, just talk us through, like, what makes your approach different, um, compared to some of the other key players that are out there in the field.

Yeah.

No, I think that's an important differentiation.

So, you know, there are already, uh, there are already siRNA gene silencing medicines in the, in, in, in, uh, exploratory, uh, clinical trial mode against Lp(a) and against PCSK9.

In fact, there's one for PCSK9, uh, uh, uh, that is already commercial in Glycerin with Alnylam.

But the point of Lp(a) is Lp(a) is a target inside, uh, the body that is, uh, determined at birth.

And it s- it, it, it turns out that if you have high Lp(a) levels, you can diet and exercise, you can become a marathon runner, and Lp(a) levels will not go down.

But yeah, three people you'd like to sit down and, and have dinner with.

Just would love to hear what you see and how you think about it.

Sure.

I think first from a macro economic backdrop, there are a handful of relatively significant tailwinds that have kind of supported what I would say is a relatively accommodative economic environment in the United States.

The first is, and this I think is true of all developed economies around the world, the amount of fiscal stimulus really since the pandemic and coming out of the pandemic, political parties on both sides of the aisle have kind of adapted to a more fiscally stimulative approach.

policy position.

And that fiscal stimulus obviously supports economic growth.

And so just more participation on the fiscal side from governments is supporting, you know, economic activity growth.

How did you think about or how was that journey or how has that journey been?

Do you see

complacency at the moment? I don't see complacency.

I think there's a lot of uncertainty around complacency.

the direction of the conflict, how it'll be resolved, what the off-ramps are.

And I think it's fair to say when you look at markets, market reactions have been relatively benign.

And I certainly could have seen over the last couple of days a little bit more volatility, but I don't think people are being complacent.

I think that market participants are looking and trying to say, you know, how is this going to play out? What's the end game? You can see, you know, good scenarios and more difficult scenarios.

You don't think it's sort of a systemic risk at this point?

Are there a few things you're most focused on as CEO kind of looking forward for the next five or 10 years?

Sure.

You know, I was a banker and I advised CEOs for a lot of my career, but actually owning the responsibility, that's one of my big takeaways the last eight years, is very different than giving advice.

I think the most important thing that a CEO has to do in a big enterprise like this is they have to kind of own the strategy and the direction of the firm.

And, you know, I'm focused on how we ensure we're executing toward growing the firm, because I know we have to do that to perform on a relative basis.

But then I'm also thinking about and worrying about big picture strategic risks that can make the firm less relevant, less successful, less important, less competitive.

And for us, I think there are two things that the firm is really focused on.

David, how would you describe kind of the macro environment? What are you hearing from the CEOs that you work and advise most closely?

So from your vantage point, how would you characterize the current global economic moment?

I think the macro setup is pretty good for risk assets and for markets, and I think there are a lot of similarities with last year.

I remember when we did the podcast last year, and we were talking, we talked about the fact that the economy was in pretty good shape.

There was good fiscal stimulus.

People were optimistic coming out of the election that it was gonna be a more constructive environment for regulation and business.

And generally speaking, that's what played out in twenty twenty-five, but with one very big speed bump in April, around Liberation Day and the implementation of the trade policy and the tariffs, but obviously with a correction shortly after, a rebalancing shortly after.

If you look at the moment, we have a confluence of very stimulative actions from a policy perspective.

When you think about the US compared to Europe and Asia, do you think that's gonna remain the same in twenty twenty-six?

What are your thought on the intersection of AI and entry-level jobs at a place like Goldman? Uh, what, what are your thoughts around, um, human capital as it relates to AI and these information-intensive businesses?

Technology in our business, you know, professional services, financial business, technology has been increasing productivity and allowing people to, uh, smart people to do more, you know, for decades and decades.

And I...

You know, just to be anecdotal about it for a moment, I go back to when I started, and I first was doing analysis, putting two companies together.

I'd go to the library and get the annual reports, and on green line paper, I'd literally write the balance sheets and income statements down.

I'd add them together.

I mean, it would take me a week to ten days to actually put two companies together and look at the combined financial results.

W- what would be your advice to a young person who's just starting out right now, given the environs and the things that we should be thinking about?

What's your long-term vision for the franchise in Greater China? What do you want your franchise to become longer

term? I think you have to look at Goldman Sachs and just think strategically that as a global firm, that when you think about our businesses, what are our two big businesses? Global banking and markets, the investment banking and trading business, and asset and wealth management.

And so if you think about how we think strategically about the firm, what advantages does the firm have? Besides the fact that we have at-scale businesses, we're very good at those activities, we're leaders in those activities, and we have a right to compete and win in those activities.

Another big advantage for the firm is we're truly global.

And in fact, we're more global and have a capacity to communicate and interact globally for our clients in a way that not many firms can't.

And so if you think about where GDP is in the world, where big economies are in the world, China is always going to fit that bill.

And barring a much more significant shift in geopolitics and the relationship between the U.S. and China, there are definitely issues.

Right.

So, you know, what's the vision here? What's the kind of growth that you're looking to achieve?

Well, we're certainly excited about what's going on in Saudi Arabia and what's going on in the GCC more broadly.

I think it's a big opportunity for our business.

We've been here for a while, but we've certainly been investing and expanding.

Here in Saudi Arabia, we opened a new office this year.

We've got about 20 people on the ground here, but we're probably headed to about 60.

And the big reason for that expansion is we've recently launched the initiative of our high end private wealth business here in the region.

But Ultimately, how worried are you about some of these individual idiosyncratic credit incidents actually becoming systemic?

Given the geopolitical strains, given now as well the shutdown in the U.S., David, does the U.S. economy weather the current political standoff in Washington? And does that resilience that we've seen this year continue into 2026?

Well, first, thank you for having me here.

Delighted to be here.

The US economy is in pretty good shape, and there are some very, very strong tailwinds that have really had a profound effect, and there are also some things going on that are creating headwinds and are probably leading the economy to underperform its expectations at this time, but I'm optimistic that we're probably going to see an acceleration as we continue to add into 2026.

The big structural issue that's kept the US economy going so well is the US, and by the way, other developed economies around the world, are running very aggressive fiscal stimulus plays.

Governments are spending enormously into economies in the developed world, and that keeps the economy going even when you have other headwinds.

Second big macro phenomenon that's affecting the US economy is all of the AI infrastructure build, all the capital spending, all that's going into the ground to support the deployment, the development, the continued growth of AI infrastructure into the enterprise, and that's a big tailwind too.

What parts of the business, and you've talked about some of them, whether it's wealth or asset management or trading or the consumer, what parts of the business at Goldman are going to be most transformed by AI?