David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs Group (GS), stated on Tuesday that as the artificial intelligence boom continues to heat up, investor sentiment has shifted from caution to optimism. He noted that the current market is in a phase of “more greed than fear,” with ample liquidity to accommodate an unprecedented wave of large-scale financing and IPO activity on the horizon.
When asked whether the capital market could withstand potential large-scale initial public offerings from AI giants such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX in the future, Solomon gave an affirmative answer. “If the market continues to maintain its current optimism, there is plenty of liquidity in the system,” he said. “There is no doubt that we are in a moment where greed exceeds fear.”
This statement comes as Wall Street prepares for its busiest equity financing cycle in recent years. The market widely expects that OpenAI and Anthropic could reach valuations of trillions of dollars when they go public in the future. Meanwhile, SpaceX, controlled by Elon Musk, which operates both a rocket launch business and the AI company xAI, is also seen as one of the most attractive potential IPO candidates going forward. At the same time, a large number of technology companies are continuously raising funds to support AI data center construction, high-performance chip procurement, and computing infrastructure expansion, raising concerns about whether financing demand might exceed the capital market’s capacity to absorb it.
However, Solomon is not worried about this. He pointed out that Alphabet recently announced plans for an $80 billion equity financing, and its stock price has remained strong since then. “This is the first real-world test of the market facing such a large-scale financing plan, and the results are encouraging.” He believes that both the equity market and the bond market retain quite strong financing capabilities, and companies are seizing the window of opportunity to actively raise funds.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is in negotiations with Wall Street underwriting banks to aggressively lower its IPO underwriting fee. The company plans to complete a $75 billion fundraising and listing this month, with negotiation targets aiming to keep the underwriting fee below 0.75%. Even at this low rate, the deal would still rank among the largest IPO commission deals in Wall Street history, with the involved investment banks collectively earning approximately $500 million.
The lead underwriters, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley (MS), will receive a larger share of this commission pool than the other 21 participating brokerage firms. Investment banks typically charge underwriting fees of 4% to 7% for IPOs, with the average offering size for such IPOs being less than $1 billion. For extremely large IPOs, the percentage fee drops significantly but usually remains above 1%. The meager fee that investment banks are offering to Musk could have a potential impact on a series of major IPOs expected to take place this year.
