Goldman’s Solomon says AI financing demand holds up despite stock selloff
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said demand for financing AI infrastructure remains strong even as AI-linked stocks have fallen in recent weeks, a reassurance that matters for chipmakers and tech-heavy indices.
Solomon said his bank has stayed “very active” arranging capital markets deals tied to AI infrastructure and expects that activity to continue, even as investors weigh the risks of the sector’s enormous spending.
Shares of chipmakers and so-called neocloud companies have declined over recent weeks as markets question whether the hundreds of billions of dollars committed to AI infrastructure will pay off. The decline started before the U.S. midterm elections and deepened after Democrats won big in the vote, stoking worries that political pushback could slow the industry’s growth.
Solomon acknowledged that shifts in the political backdrop are causing “recalibrations and ups and downs” but said he remains confident in AI’s longer-term role in lifting economic productivity.
The comments come as Anthropic prepares a possible initial public offering, seen as a major test of public-market demand for AI companies, with Goldman among the banks managing the process. Solomon declined to discuss details but described the broader market environment as “still pretty constructive.”
He also defended data center construction against political opposition, arguing the infrastructure is necessary for the U.S. economy and warning that blocking it domestically would simply push compute demand abroad.
For markets, continued bank appetite to finance AI infrastructure is a signal watched by investors in chipmakers, cloud providers and broader indices such as the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500, where sentiment toward AI spending has been driving recent swings.
Source: CNBC (finance)