The following is an excerpt from Chairman and CEO David Solomon’s letter to shareholders, which was published in Goldman Sachs’ annual report.
Growth Opportunities: Wealth, Alternatives, and Solutions
In Wealth management, we have built a premier franchise with $1.9 trillion in client assets¹¹ that is centered around meeting the distinct investing, planning, and borrowing needs of ultra-high-net-worth individuals, family offices, endowments, and foundations. Since 2021, we have grown Wealth management net revenues at a CAGR of 11 percent.
We expect further growth from here. Specifically, we are broadening our client base by increasing the number of advisors and content specialists globally. We are expanding our loan product and alternatives investment offerings. And, we are focused on elevating the overall client experience, including via enhanced digital offerings and more expansive thought leadership engagements that leverage the convening power of Goldman Sachs. To sharpen our focus on future growth in Wealth management, we have introduced a new target to achieve annual long-term fee-based net inflows of 5 percent of the channel’s long-term assets under supervision.
In Alternatives, we raised a record $115 billion in 2025 and have achieved $438 billion in gross third-party fundraising since our 2020 Investor Day. We continue to scale our flagship fund programs while concurrently developing new strategies that, together, produce strong performance for our clients. Given our success, we believe we can raise between $75 and $100 billion annually on a sustainable basis and generate double-digit percentage growth in Management and other fees from alternatives. We expect fee-paying alternative assets under supervision to reach $750 billion by the end of 2030.
In Solutions, we see secular growth in demand for our products and services. We are the #1 Outsourced CIO manager in the US,¹² the #1 separately managed account platform,¹³ and the second-largest insurance solutions provider.¹⁴ Looking ahead, we see continued opportunities for growth, including in third-party wealth in the context of alternatives offerings, ETFs, and customized solutions like direct indexing. In addition, we are expanding our capabilities in the retirement channel via partnerships, further deepening our strong relationships with insurers, and enhancing our offerings for institutional clients, including sovereign wealth funds.
Strategic partnership with T. Rowe Price and recent acquisitions
In 2025, we accelerated AWM’s growth trajectory with a strategic partnership and two announced acquisitions. We formed a collaboration with T. Rowe Price to deliver a range of public and private market solutions for retirement and wealth investors. In January 2026, we also acquired Industry Ventures, a venture capital platform that adds an attractive technology investment capability to our External Investing Group (XIG), which has over $500 billion in assets under supervision and is a market leader in secondaries investing.¹⁵ We also announced the acquisition of Innovator Capital Management, which will significantly scale our business to be in the top 10 of active ETF providers globally,¹⁶ particularly in the fast-growing outcome-based ETF segment. While the bar for M&A remains very high, we will continue to look for ways to accelerate growth in AWM.
One Goldman Sachs 3.0
As an important component of our strategic priorities, we are focused on building a more modern, digital, and automated firm so we can continue to scale our operational capacity and effectiveness. In 2025, we announced the launch of One Goldman Sachs 3.0, our new operating model propelled by AI. The rapidly accelerating advancements in AI can unlock significant productivity gains for us, and we are confident we can re-invest those gains to continue delivering world-class solutions for our clients. It has become increasingly clear that our operating processes need to reflect the gains that will come from these transformational technologies.
To fully benefit from the promise of AI, we need greater speed and agility in all facets of our operations as well as the capacity to leverage timely, accurate, and complete data. This doesn’t just mean retooling our platforms. It means taking a front-to-back view of how we organize our people, make decisions, and think about productivity, efficiency, and resilience. In short, this is a moment for us to expand our One Goldman Sachs ethos to our internal operating model.
We are starting with six workstreams that we have identified as ripe for disruption: client onboarding/KYC, vendor management, regulatory reporting, lending, enterprise risk management, and sales enablement. Our teams are already seeing a number of opportunities in these areas to deliver the firm even more seamlessly to our clients and drive greater capacity for future growth.
Looking Ahead
In 2026, while it is difficult to predict the broader economic effects of the military action by the US and Israel against Iran, we still see the potential for a more constructive operating environment, based on a confluence of factors: fiscal stimulus in developed economies, monetary easing, AI capital investment, and a more balanced regulatory regime in the US. Put together, these are very powerful catalysts for people who own, transact, and invest in risk assets.
We also expect strategic activity to accelerate. Now that there has been a change in the regulatory environment, boards and CEOs feel there is a greater likelihood that they can execute on strategic transactions to expand their scale or improve their competitive position, and they are taking a much more front-footed approach. We expect this upswing to continue—though a protracted war or another exogenous event could, of course, change the current sentiment.
One of the key themes driving market sentiment is AI. On the one hand, we believe this technology is going to reshape the way we live and work, and the opportunity for productivity gains is extraordinary. But at the same time, there are significant questions as to how quickly this technology can be deployed and adopted. With any new technology, there will be winners and losers. In the early months of 2026, we have been thinking a lot about technology disruption, particularly amid the recent market volatility. While there are likely to be periods of recalibration, in the long run I believe the net benefits from AI will accrue to many institutions as AI investment continues to build.
Looking at the world more broadly, the geopolitical landscape continues to be complex, as seen over the last few weeks in the Middle East. In Europe, there has been much discussion about a proposal to form a savings and investments union, but so far progress has proved elusive. Until Europe’s 27 countries begin to act as an economic union, their geopolitical leverage will be limited, and the world will be worse off for it. I firmly believe a strong Europe is good for the world.
We also continue to watch closely the latest developments in the US–China relationship. After a period of heated rhetoric, both sides worked to de-escalate tensions in 2025. Now that the leaders of the world’s two largest economies are expected to meet multiple times face to face, we believe there is a roadmap for more meaningful dialogue. That said, it remains to be seen whether that dialogue will lead to a significant agreement. Given how entwined they are, it is important that the US and China reach a new modus vivendi, not just for the next 12 months, but rather for the next 10 to 20 years.
In this rapidly evolving environment, we remain focused on disciplined execution, investing for growth, and prudent risk management. In this last respect, we know from history that nothing is linear over time. While we remain optimistic about the operating environment, it is not hard to come up with scenarios where risks become a lot more pronounced. In recent weeks, for example, concerns about private credit, including underwriting quality or exposure to software companies that may be adversely affected by AI, are a reminder that the credit cycle has not been repealed. Higher levels of market volatility across various risk assets, elevated geopolitical uncertainty, and greater capital deployment, especially into AI, require diligent risk management. We view our ability to manage the risks we assume on behalf of our clients as our core responsibility and it is that responsibility that must be foremost in the minds of everyone at Goldman Sachs.
With our deep client relationships and a strong culture of risk management, we believe Goldman Sachs is well positioned in the year ahead to exceed our return targets in the near term, serve our clients with excellence, and create long-term value for our shareholders.
David Solomon
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
